In its 25th anniversary year, Antec, Inc., the global leader in high-performance computer components and accessories for the gaming, PC upgrade and Do-It-Yourself markets, today announced it has set two new world records on 3DMark06 and 3DMark03, using Antec's renowned High Current Pro series HCP-1200 power supply to simultaneously power four high-end intensive graphics cards with a power consumption up to 1700 watts.

The world record scores of 48,096 marks on 3DMark06 with four Radeon HD 5870 graphic cards in 4-way Crossfire, and a 3DMark03 score of 233,433 marks in 4-way SLI-configuration with GeForce GTX 580 cards were achieved by Nick Shih, current world-wide leading overclocker. Both scores represent the unrivaled overclocking capabilities of Antec's HCP-1200 PSU and how the unparalleled performance of Antec's HCP-1200 is engineered to satisfy the needs of PC enthusiasts and overclockers for high-performance, compatibility and stability.

MSI, the leading global graphic card and motherboard manufacturer, today unveiled its two flagship cards: the N580GTX Lightning and the R6970 Lightning. These cards are specifically designed to handle the extreme overclocking which eager gamers and media outlets around the world have been waiting for. Industry-leading Power4 architecture and Twin Frozr III dual-fan cooling with innovative Propeller Blade technology brings together a solid power supply with advanced cooling technology. This results in huge boosts to overclocking potential and stability, enabling the air-cooled N580GTX Lightning to break the 1GHz core clock barrier with ease. The Lightning series of graphic cards is designed to offer the ultimate in overclocking capabilities and is the superior choice for overclocking enthusiasts seeking to set new world records.

PNY Technologies, Inc. ("PNY") will showcase their latest GeForce Graphics Cards, PC Memory, SSDs, and High Speed HDMI Cables at the PAX East 2011 exhibition -- including the all-new OC2 Edition of Graphics Cards and 2000MHz Memory Kit.

PNY has once again partnered with Newegg.com at the 3-day gaming festival, being held March 11th - 13th at the Boston Convention Center. Visitors to PNY's booth (#251) will be offered the opportunity to take part in free play, live tournaments, contests, prize giveaways, and more. Extreme gamers can check out NVIDIA 3D Vision at its best and test their gaming skills with Call of Duty: Black Ops 3D in PNY's booth. In honor of this 3-day gaming festival, PNY will offer exclusive deals on its wide variety of products on Newegg.com. For a limited time only, consumers can get the best PNY gear at highly discounted prices.

The dust seems to have settled down, after AMD's launch of the Radeon HD 6990, extending the red-team's performance lead previously held precariously by the Radeon HD 5970, to the GeForce GTX 580. It looks like NVIDIA will challenge the performance leadership with GeForce GTX 590, a dual-GPU graphics card that uses two GF110 GPUs (the ones on GTX 570 and GTX 580), for an SLI-on-a-stick solution. Rumors of NVIDIA working on this card became concrete as early as in November 2010, when NVIDIA's reference board became public for the first time.

Latest reports suggest that NVIDIA has chosen March 22 as the launch day of GeForce GTX 590. Incidentally, that is also the launch date of EA/Crytek's much-hyped, initially DirectX 9 action/shooter game, Crysis 2. GeForce GTX 590 uses two GF110, though the shader configuration and clock speeds are not known. Since NVIDIA is chasing the top-spot, you can expect the most optimal configuration for the GF110s. A total of 3 GB (1536 MB per GPU system) on board, and NVIDIA's workhorse PCI-E bridge, nForce 200 will be the traffic cop and radio station between the two GPUs. The card will be able to do 3DVision Surround (NVIDIA's multi-display single head technology comparable to ATI Eyefinity) on its own, without needing a second card.

Point of View and its associate TGT overclocking team announced what they claim to be the highest clocked NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 graphics card, the GTX 580 Beast 2. The team had, in December, announced the GTX 580 Beast, with clock speeds of 855/1710/4104 MHz (core/CUDA cores/memory effective). The new Beast 2 model features "unprecedented" clock speeds of 873 MHz core, 1746 MHz CUDA cores, and 4104 MHz memory. This, is claimed by its makers to be the highest-clocked GeForce GTX 580 graphics card. The card is kept cool by a full-coverage copper water-block made by Aqua Computer. Said to be already shipping, the Point of View TGT GeForce GTX 580 Beast 2 graphics card is priced at €799.

While it is slated for release on the 8th of this month, AMD's Radeon HD 6990 was detailed to sections of the industry. It wasn't long before someone leaked the press deck, revealing all the specifications and AMD performance estimates. The Radeon HD 6990 is a dual-GPU graphics card making use of two AMD Cayman GPUs in internal CrossFire. Cayman is the same GPU that is at the center of Radeon HD 6950 and HD 6970.

In the HD 6990, each Cayman is configured to use all 1536 of its VLIW4 stream processors. The GPU core is clocked at 830 MHz, and memory at 1250 MHz (5.00 GHz GDDR5 effective). The 256-bit wide memory interface of each GPU is populated with 2 GB of memory, setting the total board memory to 4 GB. Display IO includes five connectors, including one DVI and four mini-DisplayPort 1.2. While the HD 6990 is said to outperform GeForce GTX 580, AMD is also bracing itself for NVIDIA's dual-GPU GTX 590, with HD 6990 OC variants following an official specification of 880 MHz core, and the same 5.00 GHz memory.

GIGABYTE, a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, introduces a powerful new addition to its Super Overclock Series: GTX 580 SOC (GV-N580SO-15I). To qualify for Super Overclock Series, a GPU must go through GIGABYTE's innovative GPU Gauntlet Sorting process and it must be equipped with Ultra Durable VGA or VGA+ boards. Designed specifically for overclocking competition and gaming battle, GIGABYTE's secret weapon GTX 580 Super Overclock Edition is built with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 GPU.

Based on 40nm processor and advanced GDDR5 memory technology, the powerful new GPU consists of ground-breaking features including Microsoft DirectX 11 and NVIDIA PhysX which lead to incredibly immersive HD gaming experience and unrivaled performance. To satisfy hardcore gamers and extreme overclockers, GV-N580SO-15I is especially designed with GIGABYTE Extreme Dual BIOS technology. GV-N580SO-15I also features WINDFORCE 3X, 14 phase PWM design, OC Guru graphic card smart tuner and voltage read point.

SPARKLE Computer Co., Ltd., the professional VGA card manufacturer and supplier, today announced the SPARKLE GTX580 Thermal Guru Graphics Card with Effective Own Design Cooler, the ultimate DX11 3D monster from SPARKLE, which delivers intense performance and premium cooling effect for gamers who demand the best.

The SPARKLE GTX580 Thermal Guru Graphics Card is the latest new addition to SPARKLE's GTX 580 Series. Its core and memory clock are 772 and 4008 MHz respectively. Designed specifically for gamers who demand the best, the SPARKLE GTX580 Thermal Guru Graphics Card is built with NVDIA GeForce GTX 580 GPU. Based on 40nm processor and advanced GDDR5 memory technology, it consists of ground-breaking features including Microsoft DirectX 11 and NVIDIA PhysX which lead to incredibly immersive HD gaming experience and unrivaled performance.

Renowned overclockers elmor and Kinc did the unthinkable, breaching the 1500 MHz barrier for the core (geometry domain) clock speed of GeForce GTX 580. Using ASUS EN580GTX DirectCu graphics card, the duo managed to achieve 1504 MHz core, 3008 MHz CUDA cores, and 1253 MHz (5012 MHz GDDR5 effective) memory, churning out 240.6 GB/s memory bandwidth. With this in single-card configuration, the testbed consisting of Intel Core i7-990X clocked at 6.14 GHz and 6 GB of DDR3 memory clocked at 1750 MHz, and ASUS Rampage III Extreme motherboard, the duo achieved a 3DMark Vantage score of P45819 (performance preset), setting a new record.

The bench was powered by a 1200W Antec HCP PSU, the graphics card ran with a whopping 1.62V vGPU, and 1.86V vMem, it is estimated that the graphics card drew 600W (12V, 50A) of power in itself. The CPU and graphics card were cooled using liquid nitrogen evaporators, the GPU VRM was directly air-cooled, using a high-flow fan. A number of hard volt-mods were employed to achieve those voltages.

MSI's high-end GeForce GTX 580 graphics card that's ready for water-cooling out of the box, the MSI N580GTX HydroGen OC, released in the European retail market, priced at €563. The N580GTX HydroGen uses the same full-coverage water-block as the N480GTX HydroGen, probably sourced from Heatkiller. The block uses a full copper base and composite metal top. It is ready for G 1/4" threads. The card comes slightly overclocked out of the box, but with the kind of cooling at its disposal, it leaves the fun part to you. The GPU is clocked at 823 MHz, CUDA cores at 1645 MHz, and memory at 4276 MHz, against reference speeds of 772/1544/4008 MHz.

ASUS has launched an entire range of DirectCU II-enhanced graphics cards that include the latest technologies from both AMD and NVIDIA GPU rosters. On the AMD side, ASUS offers the HD 6970 and HD 6950 graphics cards with DirectCU II while for NVIDIA, the GTX 580, GTX 570 and new GTX 560 Ti all ship with the advanced cooling technology.

Based on ASUS DirectCU, which uses copper heat pipes in direct contact with the GPU core for up to 20% cooler performance, DirectCU II adds a custom cooler that uses twin 100mm fans for a massive 600% increase in airflow on HD 6970, HD 6950, GTX 580, and GTX 570 DirectCU II cards. ASUS has also launched the GTX 560 Ti DirectCU II TOP graphics card with dual 80mm fans for the best performance in its segment through doubled air power.

Renowned overclocker Duck set a new record 3DMark Vantage. The record was set at an event apparently conducted by Galaxy Tech. The record now stands at P75324 points. Duck used four Galaxy GeForce GTX 580 graphics cards in 4-way SLI to achieve the feat. It appears as if at least one, if not all, use an ASUS BIOS, perhaps to avail the VoltageTweak feature. Apart from the graphics cards, Duck's bench consisted of two Intel Xeon E5680 Westmere-EP 6-core/12-thread processors clocked at 5368 MHz, EVGA Classified SR-2 dual-LGA1366 motherboard, 6x 2 GB Corsair DDR3-2000 MHz CL7 memory, multiple 1200W PSUs (Corsair AX1200W + SilverStone Strider Gold SST-ST1200G), and Intel X25-M 80 GB SSD. In the cooling department, there are Duck's own JCA Water Bear Pot WB02A and K|ngp|n F1 cooling the two processors, K|ngp|n Tek9 4 and 5.0 cooling the GPUs, a custom heatsink cluster cooling the GPU VRM, and gobs of insulation.

What happens in Gainward, stays in Palit. Gainward's parent company, Palit, is also readying a GeForce GTX 580 graphics card with 3 GB memory, like its subsidiary. Featuring a non-reference PCB and cooling assembly, Palit's latest card uses twelve 2 Gbit GDDR5 memory chips over a 384-bit wide memory interface to achieve 3072 MB (3 GB) in total. It features a more traditional-looking cooler compared to the Gainward GTX 580 Phantom; which makes use of two fans to cool a large aluminum fin array. Palit's card is clocked at 783 MHz (core), 1566 MHz (CUDA cores), and 1005/4020 MHz (memory actual/effective). Based on the 40 nm GF110 core, the GTX 580 features 512 CUDA cores, and is compliant with the latest in consumer graphics technologies.

Last month, Gainward introduced its GeForce GTX 570 Phantom, which won quite some appreciation among readers for its radical design. The company decided to extend it to the GeForce GTX 580, too, since it's based on the same GF110 silicon. The only major change is that 2 Gbit memory chips are used, yielding a total memory of 3072 MB (3 GB). The memory is spread across 12 2 Gbit memory chips across a 384-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface. Clock speeds stick to NVIDIA reference: 783/1566/4020 MHz (core/CUDA cores/memory effective). The GTX 580 packs 512 CUDA cores.

The cooler makes use of a black aluminum fin array, to which heat is fed by six heat pipes. Instead of fans on its obverse side blowing air onto the PCB, there are three fans on its reverse side, drawing air from the aluminum fin array, and onto the PCB. The result is a better-looking product. Display outputs include two DVI, and one each of HDMI and DisplayPort. Gainward will release its 3 GB GTX 580 Phantom graphics card soon, at a premium over the reference design.

NVIDIA released its latest version of GeForce software suite, the unified package that installs GeForce drivers, PhysX system software, 3D Vision software, HDMI audio driver, and related system software. Version 266.58 released by NVIDIA is WHQL-signed and available for all current versions of Windows. All GeForce GPUs from 6-series onward, and ION series, are supported. Version 266.58 WHQL installs PhysX system software v9.10.0514 and HDMI audio driver version 1.1.13.1. In terms of performance improvements, 266.58 WHQL introduced a number of game-spcific performance improvements for GeForce 400 and GeForce 500 series GPUs. SLI profiles were added and improved for several games.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 266.58 WHQL

A list of changes follows.

After showing off a monstrous DirectCu II cooled Radeon HD 6970 at CES, ASUS released pictures of another card which probably couldn't make it to Vegas. The GeForce GTX 580 DirectCu II from ASUS is just as beastly as its Radeon cousin. It uses a completely in-house design, with custom PCB that uses a strong VRM; and a triple-slot cooler which uses copper heatpipes that make direct contact with the GPU. The PCB uses an 8-phase GPU and 2-phase memory VRM. Whereas the reference design draws all memory power from the slot, the ASUS version has shifted one memory phase to external for improved overclocking. The VRM makes use of high-grade components, including an NEC-made proadlizer to condition power for the GPU.

The DirectCu II cooler uses a large aluminum fin array to which heat is conveyed by five heatpipes that make direct contact with the GPU. Two 100 mm fans are in charge of ventilation. The rear panel consists of two DVI, and one each of DisplayPort and HDMI. The card is bound to have factory overclocked speeds, with room for more overclocking. The cooler, though large and with two fans, is tested by the company to be quieter than NVIDIA's reference design cooler. The GeForce GTX 580 is NVIDIA's flagship DirectX 11 GPU. It packs 512 CUDA cores, and connects to 1536 MB of memory over a 384-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface.

MSI did a lot more than showing off its AMD Fusion "Brazos" Wind U270 notebook at today's press-meet in Taiwan. The company seems to have spilled its entire load for CES, just days ahead of it. Today's exposé included two new ultra-high end graphics cards under the company's Lightning series. The R6970 Lightning is based on AMD Radeon HD 6970, and the N580GTX Lightning, of course, on NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580.

Both cards look nearly identical because their most peculiar part, the cooling assembly, is mostly the same. The Twin Frozr III from MSI combines slick looks with certain enhancements with the fan blade design (to improve noise to airflow ratio). Under the shroud is what looks to be a dense aluminum fin array to which heat is conveyed using several heat-pipes, including 8 mm thick ones. While the cooler more or less respects the 2-slot width, it increases the height of the cards by a good inch.

Zotac is flexing its engineering muscle again. Known for several novelty high-end non-reference design graphics cards, Zotac's latest work is based on the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580, and revolves around backing the GPU and memory with a strong VRM. So complex is its VRM circuit, that it extends the PCB's height by a good one inch. The VRM consists of over 16 phases, making use of high-grade chokes, capacitors, POSCAPs, and proadlizers. Power is drawn in from 8-pin and 6-pin power connectors.

To cool the beast, there's a monolithic aluminum heatsink that runs through all corners of the PCB, cooling MOSFETs and memory chips. The GPU is cooled by a 2+ slot air cooler that makes use of two 120 mm fans blowing air onto a dense aluminum fin array. This cooler can be detached, and a universal water block for the GPU can be used without having to worry about cooling other components. Although the clock speeds aren't known, one can expect them to either be high, or moderately high leaving a large overclocking headroom. Zotac will brand this card "Zotac GTX 580 Extreme Edition".

After the successful launch of the world's most powerful single graphics card- GeForce GTX 580, SPARKLE Computer Co., Ltd., the professional VGA card manufacturer and supplier, today announced the world's first independent produced GeForce GTX 580 V-Go Graphics Card, becoming the world's first manufacturer who can independently produce high-end graphics cards using Fermi architecture. "We are pleased with the new high level of SPARKLE R&D and production capabilities." said Kevin Wang, General Manager of SPARKLE. " Our mission is to provide the best graphics cards products and services to DIY players and professionals with expertise spirit on garaphics cards manufacturing for 16 years."

Since the release date, there's no independent produced GeForce GTX 580 graphics card from AIC, because it is very difficult to pass the extreme rigorous tests and verification conducted by NVIDIA. All the GeForce GTX 580 graphics cards which users now can buy in market are the reference boards, by definition all brands GTX580 series graphics cards are identical. As NVIDIA's add-in-cards partner and global strategic partner, with the strong R&D and manufacturing capabilities, SPARKLE took the lead in passing the NVIDIA original product performance testing, thermal performance and noise testing, product reliability/compatibility testing, burn-in and a series of strict validation, to become the world's first AIC manufacturer which can self-produce the GeForce GTX580 reference boards.

ZOTAC International, a leading innovator and the world's largest channel manufacturer of graphics cards, motherboards and mini-PCs, today introduces the tweaked and tuned ZOTAC GeForce GTX 580 AMP! Edition graphics card. The ZOTAC GeForce GTX 580 AMP! Edition is engineered for maximum gaming performance.

An overclocked graphics processor and memory amplifies the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 580 AMP! Edition to uncharted performance heights for a stunning visual adventure with smooth-as-butter frame rates. Support for Microsoft DirectX 11 with hardware tessellation technology enables the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 580 AMP! Edition to bring landscapes and in-game objects to life with phenomenal realism.

Point of View the leading European manufacturer of an exclusive range NVIDIA based 3D processor boards, advanced netbooks as well as fancy 7" and 10" Tegra tablet computers and additional enthusiast PC products, announces today that it is first to market with a water cooled GeForce GTX 580 3D processor board, the POV/TGT GeForce GTX 580 "Beast" featuring a solid 9mm slim-line Copper Water Cooling block. The POV/TGT GeForce GTX 580 "Beast" already started shipping at a recommended retail price of € 729.

Hand-selected by TGT, the POV/TGT GeForce GTX 580 "Beast" is running at an unprecedented 855 MHz core clock "out of the box", 1710 MHz shader clock and 4104 MHz DDR-5 memory clock honoring TGT's efforts to optimize and balance both, enhanced core clock settings and rock solid stability.

Inno3D is ready with a new high-end graphics card based on NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 580 graphics processor, which comes with a factory-fitted water cooling system. Dubbed the iChill Black Series GTX 580, the card makes use of a pre-fitted water-cooling loop consisting of a full-coverage water block, and tubing leading up to a pump/reservoir/radiator unit that uses one 120 mm fan. The loop can be detached at the card's end. The iChill card is bound to feature some factory-overclocked speeds, coupled with quite some headroom courtesy water-cooling. Its exact pricing and availability are not known. Based on the 40 nm GF110 GPU, the GeForce GTX 580 is NVIDIA's fastest GPU, it features of 512 CUDA cores, and 1536 MB of memory over a 384-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface.

On a day when a lot of other geopolitical things are being leaked, our friends from Sweden found the specifications sheet of NVIDIA's new upcoming high-end graphics accelerator, the GeForce GTX 570. The GTX 570 will be a deputy to the company's recently-release GeForce GTX 580, it is based on the GF110 graphics processor, with 480 CUDA cores enabled, and a 320-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface holding 1280 MB of memory. At this point it looks like a cross between the GTX 480 and the GTX 470, but the equations take a turn when clock speeds step in: 732 MHz core, 1464 MHz CUDA cores, and 950 MHz (3800 MHz effective) memory, churning out 152 GB/s of memory bandwidth. Power consumption is rated at 225W. NVIDIA's upcoming accelerator is slated for release on 7th December, just five days ahead of AMD's Radeon HD 6900 series launch.

Axle announced its GeForce GTX 580 graphics accelerator. Based almost entirely on the NVIDIA reference design (including cooler shroud labeling), Axle's accelerator also sticks to reference clock speeds of 772/4008 MHz (core/memory, GDDR5 effective). The GeForce GTX 580 from NVIDIA is built on a 40 nm process, it packs 512 CUDA cores, and 1536 MB of memory across a 384-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface. Expect standard pricing for Axle's card.

NVIDIA shook the high-end PC hardware industry earlier this month with the surprise launch of its GeForce GTX 580 graphics card, which extended the lead for single-GPU performance NVIDIA has been holding. It also managed to come up with some great performance per Watt improvements over the previous generation. The reference design board, however, made use of a clock speed throttling logic which reduced clock speeds when an extremely demanding 3D application such as Furmark or OCCT is run. While this is a novel way to protect components saving consumers from potentially permanent damage to the hardware, it does come as a gripe to expert users, enthusiasts and overclockers, who know what they're doing.

GPU-Z developer and our boss W1zzard has devised a way to make disabling this protection accessible to everyone (who knows what he's dealing with), and came up with a nifty new feature for GPU-Z, our popular GPU diagnostics and monitoring utility, that can disable the speed throttling mechanism. It is a new command-line argument for GPU-Z, that's "/GTX580OCP". Start the GPU-Z executable (within Windows, using Command Prompt or shortcut), using that argument, and it will disable the clock speed throttling mechanism. For example, "X:\gpuz.exe /GTX580OCP" It will stay disabled for the remainder of the session, you can close GPU-Z. It will be enabled again on the next boot.