NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 Video Card Review @ [H]

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FrgMstr

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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 Video Card Review - The GeForce GTX 580 heralds a huge comeback by NVIDIA to deliver the best DX11 gaming experience. The fastest single-GPU performance, a cooler running GPU and quiet? Is this Fermi combination possible? We explore all of this as we compare it to the GeForce GTX 480 and Radeon HD 5870.

This review will publish at 9am Eastern Time.
 
Good review, thanks crew. Looks like all the rumors of $499 were of some substance. The conclusion pretty much sums this one up nicely in that it's what the GTX 480 should have been. Good release Nvidia.

Looks like the 'egg has these for $559-589. Wonder how long for this to reach MSRP?
 
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Glad to see it is a good card. Always a good thing. ATI? What is your answer?
 
I noticed in your closing statements that a Sapphire HD 5970 is now $499 before rebates...$470 with. Can't wait to see your comparison!
 
orthetic said:
Looks like the 'egg has these for $559-589. Wonder how long for this to reach MSRP?
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It's got a 10% off code as well to bring it closer to MSRP.

I loved the page on heat/noise, that was an excellent way of summing things up and honestly was a lot more useful than a chart of decibels :). Thanks for the solid review.
 
Ok. Great Review as usual.

AMD will have to make up 30% from the 5870 to beat the GTX 580. Tall order.
Drivers aren't the best and stock clocks are too high to OC beyond 1000MHz stable in gaming.
The 6970 and the GTX 580 will trade blows depending on the game. I think it will come down to which company you like better or single card Eyefinity support.
 
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very nice. But looks like i am going to wait for the next refresh to upgrade. My GTX 275's are still going strong.
 
GoldenTiger said:
It's got a 10% off code as well to bring it closer to MSRP.

I loved the page on heat/noise, that was an excellent way of summing things up and honestly was a lot more useful than a chart of decibels :). Thanks for the solid review.
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Its cheaper off some site called mwave. Never used it so I can't say if they are legit or not. The newegg price is due to that 10% coupon they have running, guarantee that the price will drop to 499 after their coupon expires.
 
Nice job!

I'd like to see who is actually selling this card for $499 though. ;)
 
Heebs said:
Its cheaper off some site called mwave. Never used it so I can't say if they are legit or not. The newegg price is due to that 10% coupon they have running, guarantee that the price will drop to 499 after their coupon expires.
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Mwave is cool, I used em alot back in ~1999 - 2002 before I switched to newegg for the more frequent free shipping and lower prices. Been thinking about ordering from them again since newegg is losing its pricing and shipping fee edge.
 
I can't believe they actually tamed the beast that is Fermi. This is a nice card but $500 seems like an unreasonable price point when you realize you can get a 5870 for under $300 or you could get two 6870s for less than the price of one GTX580. Seems like the only thing nvidia doesn't want to be competitive in is price.
 
Well, actually the question for many will be a couple GTX 470's in SLI or ATI 6870's in Crossfire vs. these GTX 580's or even ATI's upcoming 6970. Personally, i have a pretty deep affinity for Nvidia, however i'm currently rocking a couple Radeon 6870's. I really think with this refresh of cards, we're going to be looking at features like multi-display gaming and brand specific features like CUDA than raw performance.

I think we're starting to see the current crop of gaming engines hit their head on "normal" levels of performance, short of Metro 2033 and Civ5.
 
Nice. I am going to replace my GTX 480 with a GTX 580, the performance and quieter profile are my reasons. Thanks for the review, much more informative than the others I saw.
 
hmm, will you guys show comparision from like a 6850/6870 crossfire and a 460 sli?

Also, i think your conclusion is spot on, this IS what the 480 should have been. I do wonder why it's named 580 though, i thought it would be 485 *shrugs.
 
Heebs said:
Its cheaper off some site called mwave. Never used it so I can't say if they are legit or not. The newegg price is due to that 10% coupon they have running, guarantee that the price will drop to 499 after their coupon expires.
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I used to shop at mwave back in the day, before newegg, they were legit then. It's been probably 10 years since I bought anything from them so I don't know if that's changed.
 
SixtyWattMan said:
I can't believe they actually tamed the beast that is Fermi. This is a nice card but $500 seems like an unreasonable price point when you realize you can get a 5870 for under $300 or you could get two 6870s for less than the price of one GTX580. Seems like the only thing nvidia doesn't want to be competitive in is price.
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I'm banking on AMD releasing their 6970 for less.
 
Fixed, thanks Kyle

And you're right about improvements made to the 5870 in Metro2033. The more recent drivers has really made the card equal to the GTX480.
 
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Personally, I would love to see some 460 SLI numbers next to this card. @ under $400 dollars for a 2gig 460 SLI setup and the performance that brings to the table, there has to be some merit to running that benchmark.
 
Finally good to see some head-to-head competition, as well as prices achieving reasonable levels.
 
orthetic said:
Well, actually the question for many will be a couple GTX 470's in SLI or ATI 6870's in Crossfire vs. these GTX 580's or even ATI's upcoming 6970. Personally, i have a pretty deep affinity for Nvidia, however i'm currently rocking a couple Radeon 6870's. I really think with this refresh of cards, we're going to be looking at features like multi-display gaming and brand specific features like CUDA than raw performance.

I think we're starting to see the current crop of gaming engines hit their head on "normal" levels of performance, short of Metro 2033 and Civ5.
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I saw a different review with 810mhz GTX 460's coming maybe 10% ahead of a single GTX 580 at 2560x1600 with AA... the 460's which are comparable to my stock 470's. For me the choice to switch from 470 SLI to a 580 for the lower noise profile (I can't overclock them in SLI due to heat/noise) that may nearly match the speed is a no-brainer. It seems like a solid product to me.

SixFootDuo said:
Personally, I would love to see some 460 SLI numbers next to this card. @ under $400 dollars for a 1gig 460 SLI setup and the performance that brings to the table, there has to be some merit to running that benchmark.
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There is, it's about 10% faster on average and in some games had a much lower minimum FPS than a single 580. So, it's cheaper but dependent on dual card issues & lower min fps meaning more dips.
 
So the ATI 6970 is a .28 part? And this is supposed to be launching soon. No sure if it's soon or pushed til early next year.

Sorry to get off topic.
 
SixFootDuo said:
So the ATI 6970 is a .28 part? And this is supposed to be launching soon. No sure if it's soon or pushed til early next year.

Sorry to get off topic.
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Supposed to be Nov 22nd but there are rumors flying that its been delayed. I dont think AMD can afford to miss out on the holiday shopping with NVIDIA putting out their new flagship card just in time.
 
Good performance, but unfortunately I can't buy 2 and I've become rather attached to my 3 monitor gaming. It seems to me it's the driver that prevents them from using a lower quality card just for it's 3rd output right? You can already use 2 videocards and have 3 monitors going, then drag a game in windowed mode to cover all 3, so I don't see any hardware reason why nVidia can't do 1 big display of 3 monitors with 1 580 and 1 old videocard we have laying around.
 
SixFootDuo said:
So the ATI 6970 is a .28 part? And this is supposed to be launching soon. No sure if it's soon or pushed til early next year.

Sorry to get off topic.
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no, it's also 40nm. It's rumoured to be coming out in 11 days.

1 thing i find rather interesting about the 580 though, i'm really surprised they didn't add triple monitor support on it. I noticed that alot of reviews don't even mention that.
 
Nice review Kyle. That ambient room temperature thing when loaded was a pretty good way to explain just how much cooler it must run.

Only running a single 480 myself. Since it's winter, I can likely hold out till spring and make use of the heat this thing puts out before upgrading. :) I haven't actually noticed it myself, but my computer room is off of the front room (it's supposed to be the dining room) so I have plenty of area for air to circulate. Also my desk is huge and the pc sits on one corner.
 
One thing is for sure, competition is great. It really benefits us, the die hard game player. I'm excited for all the new 580 owners. Can't wait to see what is right around the corner.
 
SixFootDuo said:
One thing is for sure, competition is great. It really benefits us, the die hard game player. I'm excited for all the new 580 owners. Can't wait to see what is right around the corner.
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Thumbs up and 100% agreed.
 
Great review as always. I like the different style of review in the heat section, although I think you should also include a little standard chart as well to appease the masses.
 
mrrogers747 said:
Great review as always. I like the different style of review in the heat section, although I think you should also include a little standard chart as well to appease the masses.
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I am sure you can find that at 20 other sites.
 
GoldenTiger said:
I saw a different review with 810mhz GTX 460's coming maybe 10% ahead of a single GTX 580 at 2560x1600 with AA... the 460's which are comparable to my stock 470's.
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Very interesting! I was curious as to the performance of the dual 470 and 6870 primarily keeping to the 580's current and msrp price tag. Bang for the buck seems pretty strong in either direction, though I'm with you on the noise issue.

When I switched from the GTX 280 to the 6870s, I was surprised by the noise output when not using vsync. The 280 had a more acceptable sound quality to my ears. Letting the 6870s run as fast as they want in a non-vsync isnt something I ever see myself doing, yet when I make the jump from my current 19x12 to a 25x16 I will be faced with the noise issue again. Thus, i'm now considering a GTX 580 now, and if performance requires it another one somewhere in the future. The benefits of CUDA in CS5 and Vegas are also calling me, ah decisions!
 
Kyle, I was looking at the pictures of your case (yes I did read the article:)). It seemed that the external cables were blocking (some of) the airflow from your H50. Is this the case or am I looking at it wrong? As usual it was an excellent article thank you.
 
LOL @ the power and heat section. Great job with the subjective analysis. If given enough detail, I think its the way to go. But I do think its time for the singleplayer bc2 runs to go away. Battlefield games are played online and this particular game plays very differently depending on sp or mp. Would be great to see some comparisons with cards on 32 person servers with a target minimum framerate of at least 45 for 1680 and 1920.
 
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