NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 1536 MB

[crow1001]

Decent review, but Dirt 2 still tested in DX9, and I wish you would drop the lower res results for the beastly cards, 1024x768/1280x224 are not relevant to the card being benched, you're better of dumping them and spending the time benching another game.

 

[Yellow&Nerdy?]

Great review. The card just fails to impress me... And the re-naming crap is even worse than what AMD did. Guess Nvidia "did it again". I'm not willing to spend 480 euros for 10-15% performance increase over the 480 and a little better thermals, to be honest. I guess I'll just have to wait for Cayman. Atleast that's a new chip, instead of the 580, which is more like a tweaked/fixed 480. I would like to see future cards based on the GF104 though, like a GF114 maybe.

 

[qubit]

now what I'm interested in is to see some scaled down versions of GF110, and what sort of performance they provide and power they consume. for instance GTX470 specs on a GF110 core might just be win. perhaps win enough to jam two on a card...

Now, at the risk of being horribly wrong here, isn't the GF110 actually a scaled up GF104 which had at least some of these improvements in it?

 

[DonInKansas]

If it's not "real-world usage," then they should ignore it. Nobody is going to see the Furmark results besides us enthusiasts anyway.

I find this point hilarious. The GTX 580 is the exact definition of an enthusiast card; it's not like you're gonna see Dell slapping these bad boys into machines anytime soon.

And as for the naming scheme, I fall back on what I've said previously. I don't care if they call it NVidia PewPew 485,800.626. Those who are in the market for this will be able to find it.

 

[wolf]

Now, at the risk of being horribly wrong here, isn't the GF110 actually a scaled up GF104 which had at least some of these improvements in it?

while it does takes some improvements from GF104, is it far closer to GF100 than GF104, namely the clusters of CUDA cores remain at 32, rather than GF104's 48. they basically took GF100 in february (before release even) and said to themselves, whats wrong with this GPU? and started optimising it.

it will be interesting to see however... now they have to fill a gap between the GTX460-1gb and the GTX580 with either, a scaled down GF110 or a GF104 variant, or a new GPU altogether. I still think a 384sp GF104 would do nicely in there.

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

Wait, so I can't use OCCT to stability test this card? It's the only program that really worked on fine tuning my 470 overclock. Furmark would pass with very unstable clocks.

Feels like we're totally shafted by this 28nm delay. So we get a holdover card using some of the architecture tricks they were planning for the 28nm cards, then we get the other 15% when 28nm finally arrives. Instead of getting that 30% all at once we have it spread out over twice as much time. With the price and measly improvement I'm not sure I'd recommend this card to anybody, at least not current 5xxx/6xxx/4xx series owners.

 

[wolf]

LAN_deRf_HA I think you will be able to use OCCT, you just need to find a way to circumvent the power limiter, which a fair few reviewers have done already.

 

[douglatins]

Are you guys forgetting you can get much better performance for less? take a look ant what a 6870 CFX can do here

This is BC2, i believe to be the best game for benchmark comparison.

Thats 50% better for 20USD less

AMD should release a 500USD dual 6850/6870 now a 6890 of sorts.

 

[N3M3515]

Are you guys forgetting you can get much better performance for less? take a look ant what a 6870 CFX can do here

http://img.techpowerup.org/101109/09-11-2010 16.22.19 Screenshot..png

Thats 50% better for 80USD less

Actually that's the diff.

 

[wolf]

Are you guys forgetting you can get much better performance for less? take a look ant what a 6870 CFX can do here

http://img.techpowerup.org/101109/09-11-2010 16.22.19 Screenshot..png

Thats 50% better for 20USD less

AMD should release a 500USD dual 6850/6870 now a 6890 of sorts.

as shown in one game.... but your comparing apples to oranges, 6870's or GTX460's are cheaper and faster yes, but with both you occupy two pci-e slots, and are already at your maximum amount of cards.

with a GTX580 you have one beastly GPU, and you can add at least two more down the track if you want to. thats just a couple of reasons people would want a GTX580 over two lesser cards.

theres always a value proposition, but there will be people with their heart set on this card, and you won't be able to talk them out of it with those kind of options.

 

[erocker]

Two 6870's will run $500 bucks. $250 + $250 (shipping included) I can get a GTX 580 for $508 shipped. That's an $8 dollar difference.

 

[mtosev]

hehe. my hd 5970 is still faster

 

[N3M3515]

Don't think so
Cheapest GTX 580
U$568 shipping included

Cheapest HD 6870
U$494 shipping included

That's U$74.26 to be exact.

 

[douglatins]

Two 6870's will run $500 bucks. $250 + $250 (shipping included) I can get a GTX 580 for $508 shipped. That's an $8 dollar difference.

PowerColor AX6870 1GBD5-M2DH Radeon HD 6870 1GB 25...

30USD difference

 

[erocker]

Don't think so
Cheapest GTX 580
U$568 shipping included

Cheapest HD 6870
U$494 shipping included

That's U$74.26 to be exact.

I'm not basing it off of Newegg's inflated prices.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6942947&CatId=3669

 

[douglatins]

Still it could be more expensive and still a better deal for 50% increase. And the point of hey you could add one later is moot, since no one wants 500W of video cards or more, say you wait 6 months for getting a second 580, maybe maxwell are out, a card that is 2x the performace of a 580, for 400USD, i dont get adding more later, just replace everything since stuff get more efficient

Erocker you bought one right? I look like you are reinforcing your mind or some sorts

 

[erocker]

Meh, either way I'm personally unimpressed with current offerings from both sides. I have a little hope for 6970 but I'll most likely just wait until 28nm even though it pains me to wait! I also agree that the 6870's in CrossFire are a better deal with better performance.

 

[Ross211]

I'm really hoping for a price war in over a week when AMD's real deal drops.

Whatsup with the rumor that GPU are going to increase in price 2-3 weeks after the HD 6850 and HD 6870 launch? Anyone heard this ? Is it gonna be like how the HD 5000 series was sold way higher than the MSRP at launch?

 

[Tatty_Two]

In Crysis it reached 86°C, and if overclocked with voltage tuning it started to throttle at 97°C. So much for being sooo much better.
Oh and it still doesnt beat the 5970, but costs more.

Am really wondering what the new AMD 6950/70 will bring to the table.

Costs more? Not in UK it don't, it is considerably cheaper, in fact 5% slower than a 5970 but at least 15% cheaper.

 

[Black Panther]

Great review!

Now for my subjective opinion, I am impressed. It matches the 5970 well, msrp is cheaper at least in EU, and we're speaking of a single gpu card here. (Now I'm no nvidia fanboi - I own a 5970 and one of the nvidia cards in my laptop died after only a bit more than 2 years of use but I see nice potential in this card - nvidia would pwn the 5970 if it releases a dual gpu version of the 580)

 

[pantherx12]

They better be, its two cards with 2 GB's of total memory. If I paid $700 for two 5870's and a $550 GTX 580 beat my min fps I'd be pretty upset.

The memory is irrelevant since it's still the x amount of identical data on each set of memory.

So still counts as 1gb really.

 

[Red_Machine]

I just pre-ordered the Palit version from eBuyer for a grand total of £384. Hopefully I'll get one from the first batch allocated to me and not end up waiting ages for it!

 

[qubit]

I just pre-ordered the Palit version from eBuyer for a grand total of £384. Hopefully I'll get one from the first batch allocated to me and not end up waiting ages for it!

That's a good price. Enjoy.

 

[newtekie1]

Are you guys forgetting you can get much better performance for less? take a look ant what a 6870 CFX can do here

This is BC2, i believe to be the best game for benchmark comparison.

http://img.techpowerup.org/101109/09-11-2010 16.22.19 Screenshot..png

Thats 50% better for 20USD less

AMD should release a 500USD dual 6850/6870 now a 6890 of sorts.

There are a couple problems with that possition.

The main one, and the one that caused me to stop using dual-card solutions, is that when a new game comes out Crossfire and SLi both have to be optimized for it before they really work. So while BC2 might be one of the better examples of a game that gives very good performance scaling with SLi and Crossfire, other games do not yeild that great of performance scaling especially when they are first released.

In fact sometimes when a game is released, SLi or Crossfire doesn't work at all, so then you are stuck with the performance of a single card, and there have even been cases where a driver that allowed Crossfire or SLi took 2+ Weeks to be released.

With a single card, you know right away that if you buy a game on launch day, you are going to get the kick-ass performance you paid for and not mid-range performance when you put out high-end money.

 

[Red_Machine]

That's a good price. Enjoy.

I intend to!