Which GTX 580 to get - i've lost my marbles!

[Berty]

Hi.
Time to decide on the on the final part of my new build, the GPU - weyhey!

I have decided on a gtx 580 as I wont be able to afford to SLI two 570s in the future. This is pretty much my family's silver ebayed and my nephews and nieces sold at auction to work as Santa's Elves in Lapland on a ten year contract, all of which will be a surprise Christmas present to the family just before I board a plane for Peru.

I need a dual slot card and not larger due to other cards that I need in the system.

I have been searching for a good few hours each day swapping between different cards and my head is killing me, eyes are bleeding profusely and can only speak in a confused set of garbled chimp noises, none of which are down to searching for a card but still interesting all the same.

Price not too much of an issue but I don't think I need more than a 1.5gb card. So I'm asking for recommendations on which is kicking the competition in the happy sacks at the mo. Am going with Nvidia as I have an intel sandy bridge rig.

The card that has really tickled my fancy so far is the Point of View 1536MB GeForce GTX 580 TGT Ultra Charged. It comes with a 2 year warrenty, would have prefered a 3 year one but wouldn't we all. Also it has the vapour chamber but would the MSI 580 with the frozer II be a better option?

All suggestions would be hugely welcomed an massively appreciated.

Cheers guys!!

 

[arnoo1]

Msi gtx580 Twinfrozer or gigabyte windforce gtx580 soc

 

[Achilles1600]

Wait for the GTX 680, it should be out in december.

 

[Berty]

That would be nice but I don't think I could afford one, I guess price is a bit of an issue afterall. I think i'd be better stick with a 580, I was only going to go as far as a 570 but thought to hell with it - don't get a chance like this too often. Cheers though

 

[Achilles1600]

Or if you want, you cn buy the MSI twin forz, or the asus GTX 580, the asus 580 has voltage tweak.

 

[qubit]

Wait for the GTX 680, it should be out in december.

No it won't, you're thinking of AMD, who will release products early next year. nvidia comes after that.

@Berty: I'd go for the cheapest reference design, as they're pretty good, including the stock cooler. If you want a better cooler, then get one of the custom models from Asus, Gigabyte or MSI. Personally, I like Gigabyte, because of their Ultra Durable technology, but it's not critical.

 

[Achilles1600]

No it won't, you're thinking of AMD, who will release products early next year. nvidia comes after that.

@Berty: I'd go for the cheapest reference design, as they're pretty good, including the stock cooler. If you want a better cooler, then get one of the custom models from Asus, Gigabyte or MSI. Personally, I like Gigabyte, because of their Ultra Durable technology, but it's not critical.

Didnt nvidia release the 500 series at the same time as the hd 6000 serie's last year, iv heard rumor's that the gtx 600 serie's is going to release at the same time as the hd 7000 serie's.

 

[the54thvoid]

Wait for the GTX 680, it should be out in december.

Erm what?

No.

Closest rumours for new gen cards come from semi-accurate for 7 series AMD (http://semiaccurate.com/2011/11/17/more-bits-on-hd7000northern-islandsgcn-leak/)

I'd get the SOC from Gigabyte.

 

[Berty]

It does look like the Gigabyte option is pulling me in, the MSI is £65-£75 cheaper with less kick but in these situations I find the 'could get hit by a bus tomorrow' philosophy tends to ride buck-shot over the wallet.

 

[Achilles1600]

Get the MSI twin forz.

 

[entropy13]

Why not get the MSI GTX 580 Lightning then. If I recall correctly, the Lightning Xtreme's only advantage is the more vRAM and the "anti-dust" fans.

 

[Berty]

aagghhhhh...this is why I went mad haha

 

[Shihab]

If you want a better cooler, then get one of the custom models from Asus, Gigabyte or MSI. Personally, I like Gigabyte, because of their Ultra Durable technology, but it's not critical.

ASUS non-reference GTX580s are triple-slot cards. Both the DCII and the Matrix.
+1 on the Gigabyte and the MSI though. I've read some decent reviews on the Gigabyte SOC card. Plus the three fan design gives it a monstrous look.

 

[Berty]

Well I swung back to the MSI 580 as it's cheaper and I could SLI in the future whilst keeping my sound card installed, however I noticed that EVGA offer a 3 year warrenty with an 8 year extension on this model:

EVGA 3GB GeForce GTX 580 NVIDIA Graphics Card
03G-P3-1584-ER - 3GB EVGA GTX 580, 40nm, 4008MHz GDDR5, GPU 772MHz, Shader 1544MHz, 512 Cores

Cost jumps from £350 to £442 and it is only 28MHz slower than the msi. The 3gb isn't something that I think is necessary but it won't hurt so I think that kinda jumps in to the lead. Does anyone here have experience of the 3gb EVGA gtx 580? Very hard to ignore given that warrenty offer.

There are other cheaper models but that's the cheapest with the warrenty deal.

What d'ya think?

edit: i'm just doubling checking that offer, might be old info.
edit 2: seems good, 10 year warrenty http://eu.evga.com/support/warranty/

 

[qubit]

Well I swung back to the MSI 580 as it's cheaper and I could SLI in the future whilst keeping my sound card installed, however I noticed that EVGA offer a 3 year warrenty with an 8 year extension on this model:

EVGA 3GB GeForce GTX 580 NVIDIA Graphics Card
03G-P3-1584-ER - 3GB EVGA GTX 580, 40nm, 4008MHz GDDR5, GPU 772MHz, Shader 1544MHz, 512 Cores

Cost jumps from £350 to £442 and it is only 28MHz slower than the msi. The 3gb isn't something that I think is necessary but it won't hurt so I think that kinda jumps in to the lead. Does anyone here have experience of the 3gb EVGA gtx 580? Very hard to ignore given that warrenty offer.

There are other cheaper models but that's the cheapest with the warrenty deal.

What d'ya think?

edit: i'm just doubling checking that offer, might be old info.
edit 2: seems good, 10 year warrenty http://eu.evga.com/support/warranty/

That long warranty is just marketing fluff. Why? Anyone that buys a card like this is obviously a performance enthusiast who wants the top product with the best performance and these products don't stay at the top for long. Therefore, you're likely to replace it within 2 years, let alone 3 and 8 is just ridiculous.

Buy it for other reasons, but not that warranty. EVGA knows this, which is why they can offer such a crazy warranty and not get nailed with the returns.

 

[Shou Miko]

if u r lucky u can get 10years warranty with EVGA, but that depends on where in the world u r ^^

 

[Berty]

I'm in the UK. That's a good point though qubit why would I want a ten year warrenty? I need the beeling obvious pointed out to me some times haha, thanks. I think I am worried about seeing a better option after I've already bought a card, has happened a few times with various things.

 

[Darkleoco]

Go with the MSI, the Twin Frozr cooling is great for the price, another fan on the Gigabyte is not worth the price.

 

[Xiphos]

That long warranty is just marketing fluff. Why? Anyone that buys a card like this is obviously a performance enthusiast who wants the top product with the best performance and these products don't stay at the top for long. Therefore, you're likely to replace it within 2 years, let alone 3 and 8 is just ridiculous.

Buy it for other reasons, but not that warranty. EVGA knows this, which is why they can offer such a crazy warranty and not get nailed with the returns.

not so true for motherboards though XD
EVGA doesn't offer lifetime warranty, 10 year in eu, on current gen motherboards.
X58 had lifetime warranty models, not X79 nor P67/Z68 boards.

 

[Volkszorn88]

Not sure if you're interested, but they're selling an HD 5970 on newegg for 300 USD. For that price, it's a steal.

 

[Berty]

I'd like to go for a Nvidia card and i'm in the UK. Would be pretty nice if they had a store over here though!

 

[entropy13]

Looks like I can't find any GTX 580 Lightning from MSI available in the UK, only the Lightning Xtreme Edition.

I guess you're set on this already?
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1536...gpu-800mhz-shader-1544mhz-512-cores-plusfree-

 

[Berty]

Yep that's looking like the one, I did find a site that listed Dec 4th as getting some of the Lightening models in but can't remember which site it was

If I go for the OC model I can save some money towards future SLI which would be harder to do by going for the slightly pricier option. Considering I was going to get a 560ti a month ago then changed my mind to a 570 a week ago and now i'm looking at a 580 it's going to be a hell of an upgrade

 

[entropy13]

Yep that's looking like the one, I did find a site that listed Dec 4th as getting some of the Lightening models in but can't remember which site it was

If I go for the OC model I can save some money towards future SLI which would be harder to do by going for the slightly pricier option. Considering I was going to get a 560ti a month ago then changed my mind to a 570 a week ago and now i'm looking at a 580 it's going to be a hell of an upgrade

So far I've checked scan, dabs, overclockers and ebuyer, but no Lightning only models. Only scan and overclockers have the Twin Frozr II/OC at £349.99 among the four.

 

[Berty]

Could be a bit worrying, I wont be able to buy until the 3rd of Dec, could be looking at a pre Christmas sellout Hope the price doesn't go up.