Galaxy MDT GeForce GTX 580 Video Card Review @ [H]

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FrgMstr

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Galaxy MDT GeForce GTX 580 Video Card Review - Galaxy has developed a video card that is based on the GeForce GTX 580 GPU and will allow you to run triple-display gaming with a single video card. This unique video card allows gamers more display options than ever on a GeForce GTX 580 GPU. We will look at configuration options, gameplay experience on triple-display, as well as overclocking.
 
how come this didn't get compared to AMDs offerings, I've never seen this in a [H] review..
Since this comes at a higher price than AMDs 7970 and performs slower, I can't really agree with the [H] Gold Award, I have a lot of respect for Galaxy, And the custom pcb and, extra monitor support and lower power consumption are amazing. It's a great quality card, However if one isn't being loyal to a specific brand, wouldn't it make more sense to wait for the 7970?
 
Seems odd that it wasn't compared to ANY cards from AMD. Did Nvidia ask for it not to be compared to them for fear that a $579.99 overclocked GXT580 is still slower than a stock 7970?

Come on, [H]. We expect better. :rolleyes:
 
I agree,with the posters above.

I was reading & expecting a comparison vs newest AMD's offering to come out in 7 days.

It would be a disservice to your readers to not compare (NDA maybe?) but at least mention it.
 
Compared to all other nvidia offerings out there definitely gets a gold considering what it does that the others dont and the price and performance offered. However in the larger scheme of things maybe worth of a silver award as there are cheaper faster solutions that can run 4 or more displays at equal or much much better performance e.g. 7970.
 
The thinking is that it is a solo Nvidia card doing mult-imonitor gaming which isn't available anywhere else. Some people just don't like AMD's driver support and go Nvidia only. That's why it's a Gold standard without being compared to the AMD offerings.

Now the question is should it be reviewed against the AMD offerings? I don't see a reason why not, but with it having to rely on custom ini files to do it's job it's not exactly a fair comparison at this time IMO. If you don't mind AMD videocard support then sure the AMD cards are probably a better value for you.

If you're a staunch Nvidia user then it's pointless to compare the two. If anything I wish it would make Nvidia consider doing official single card multi-monitor support. I can justify buying a single high end videocard and three monitors. I can't justify over $1,000 in videocards and then three monitors. Just too large of an investment all at once.

If that makes sense to you.
 
NDA shouldn't be an issue, Since the review is out, I don't see why it can't just compare them..
If it is, They could have mentioned something about it. I would like an explanation if it's not too much to ask.
 
ValVed RaY said:
NDA shouldn't be an issue, Since the review is out, I don't see why it can't just compare them..
If it is, They could have mentioned something about it. I would like an explanation if it's not too much to ask.
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Well, from previous responses from the [H] team, I can tell you that their reviews are done weeks ahead of time and sometimes are sitting in the editing phase for a good extra week or sometimes more so at the time it was written NDA may have been an issue. They could have added it just prior to releasing the article but that would delay things as it would have to get edited again. :)
 
Its already compared to the HD 7970 in the other review? Why would you need it again here.......
 
cageymaru said:
The thinking is that it is a solo Nvidia card doing mult-imonitor gaming which isn't available anywhere else. Some people just don't like AMD's driver support and go Nvidia only. That's why it's a Gold standard without being compared to the AMD offerings.
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That's just favoritism, If you like or don't like something, Reading many reviews over the years on this website I've come to expect everything being inclusive to comparison. Yes AMD has driver issues supports, and it shows in the comparisons, What's the point of a benchmark if you're not going to measure it against anything?

cageymaru said:
Now the question is should it be reviewed against the AMD offerings? I don't see a reason why not, but with it having to rely on custom ini files to do it's job it's not exactly a fair comparison at this time IMO. If you don't mind AMD videocard support then sure the AMD cards are probably a better value for you.
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Absolutely fair, The manufacturer did an amazing job on the card, But just because it slacked a bit on game support, shouldn't exclude it from being compared.
 
Darksword said:
Seems odd that it wasn't compared to ANY cards from AMD. Did Nvidia ask for it not to be compared to them for fear that a $579.99 overclocked GXT580 is still slower than a stock 7970?

Come on, [H] readers. We expect better. :rolleyes:
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it was compared to the 7970 in the 7970 review duh! obviously this review for this specific card was started before or at the same time as the 7970 and was released after the 7970 most likely due to the fact that AMD changed the NDA date to the 22nd instead of the Jan. 9th which means they had to rush the review release on the 7970.

btw i fixed the last part of your post.
 
xIronCrossx said:
Its already compared to the HD 7970 in the other review? Why would you need it again here.......
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Convenience! Convenience! Convenience!
This website would seem a lot less professional if all the sudden, Reviews didn't include comparisons, and we were forced to Ctrl Tab between reviews, trying to memorize numbers and then weighing in potentially different drivers considering these are quite frequent.

I have a TON of respect for [H] and i hope i'm not insulting anyone, I'm just trying to be honest.
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
it was compared to the 7970 in the 7970 review duh! obviously this review for this specific card was started before the 7970 and was released after the 7970 most likely due to the fact that AMD changed the NDA date to the 22nd instead of the 9th which means they had to rush the review release on the 7970.

btw i fixed the last part of your post.
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How do you know that this review was started before the 7970?
and the 7970s review did seem kind of rushed, since it didn't include any over clocking numbers now that i think of it.
 
ValVed RaY said:
How do you know that this review was started before the 7970?
and the 7970s review did seem kind of rushed, since it didn't include any over clocking numbers now that i think of it.
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based on the average time it takes for a review to be done per what brent and kyle and the other reviewers have said and the fact that it wasn't directly compared to the 7970 in this review that would be the most logical reason. if you already started it, its kind of pointless to go back and edit in all the 7970 numbers after the fact even with the numbers already on the site in another review. but more then likely they were done together since its not compared to another card and because it came out later(since they weren't under pressure to release it).
 
Honestly, It's not even the lack of comparison that is bothering me.
But it's more the [H]Gold Award. I've always been highly impressed by products that carry these awards.
They have excellent quality, sometimes unique features, And a solid bang for your buck. i'm not saying the cheapest price!!!, But you can't leave value out of the equation. and i think this is more of a [H]Silver award product, than a gold. I know it's not really fair to compare a 28nm to a 40nm card, and this might be the pinnacle of 40nm cards. I just can't recommend this to anyone without giving a mention to the upcoming 7970. It's slightly misleading.
 
R.E. Evaluation Format and 7970 Comparison feedback:

Evaluation format was the same as we did for the Galaxy GeForce GTX560 Ti MDT X5 to show specific performance of the video card being evaluated, since it is in its own price class, and the only card of its kind for a GTX 580.

We did show performance of this video card compared to the Radeon HD 7970 in our AMD Radeon HD 7970 Video Card Review, this video card was the sole competition in that evaluation, throughout.
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
it was compared to the 7970 in the 7970 review duh! obviously this review for this specific card was started before or at the same time as the 7970 and was released after the 7970 most likely due to the fact that AMD changed the NDA date to the 22nd instead of the Jan. 9th which means they had to rush the review release on the 7970.

btw i fixed the last part of your post.
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Nail, head.

Now please back to discussing the Galaxy MDT GeForce GTX 580. Gold award status is thoroughly explained in the conclusion. This really is a good video card, and unique, no other GTX 580 like it.
 
The "only card in its price class" is a silly excuse. You should have been reviewing all GTX 580s individually, then, since the 6970 is significantly cheaper and the 6990 is significantly more expensive. Also, even if the review was done significantly ahead of time, as has been suggested, why would that preclude a comparison against the products that were available at the time? As for being the "only card of its kind", why weren't the eyefinity edition video cards reviewed independently?

It would be much better for the reputation of the website if you just came out and said that you were reviewing this card independently because of your association with Galaxy, which strongly appears to be the case. You'd save some face and I doubt that anyone would honestly care. Without even a reference to the fact that there are faster, cheaper, more energy efficient solutions available, this article just comes off as an advertisement posing as a review.
 
In the HD7970 reveiw the card doesn't look like a Gold award winner once you remember that it's overclocked and the HD6970 is right there with it and stock speed and alot cheaper price.
 
Yeah, I really have a lot of respect for Galaxy and i truly love innovation. It's amazing that they can have an overclocked card with a lower power draw and multi monitor support out of a card that isn't supposed to have it. I hope they keep doing things like these and i'm sure this must have been a hard thing to do for the engineers. Goty I don't know what the association with HardOcp and Galaxy is. I can't say anything about that and i'm not going to speculate. and yeah your last sentence kind of sums up how i feel about this.

Brent i got a lot of respect for what you do man. Whatever award you wanna give is up to you guys. I don't expect you guys to go back and change the verdict or change the review, just cause of how a couple of people feel. I'm sure you put considered all of the above, and whatever made you guys do the review like this is your decision. Just think that when people leave comments like these, it might reflect how a larger group of people feel about it.
 
ValVed RaY said:
Yeah, I really have a lot of respect for Galaxy and i truly love innovation. It's amazing that they can have an overclocked card with a lower power draw and multi monitor support out of a card that isn't supposed to have it. I hope they keep doing things like these and i'm sure this must have been a hard thing to do for the engineers. Goty I don't know what the association with HardOcp and Galaxy is. I can't say anything about that and i'm not going to speculate. and yeah your last sentence kind of sums up how i feel about this.

Brent i got a lot of respect for what you do man. Whatever award you wanna give is up to you guys. I don't expect you guys to go back and change the verdict or change the review, just cause of how a couple of people feel. I'm sure you put considered all of the above, and whatever made you guys do the review like this is your decision. Just think that when people leave comments like these, it might reflect how a larger group of people feel about it.
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Not to sound condescending, but the difference between those opinions, and ours, is that we've actually tested the video card, spent a lot of time with it it, setup different displays, used it in real-world gaming situations, and have gained opinions about it based on facts and data from our physical testing of the video card. Our opinions are educated opinions based on actual experiences using the hardware. You are free to disagree with them, but this is where we get our opinions from. Thanks for the feedback.

I think what is being overlooked in this thread is what Galaxy has done for the GeForce GTX 580, and multi-display gamers who wish to have the fastest NVIDIA GPU. NVIDIA does not provide multi-display gaming, unless you use SLI (two-GPUs). Galaxy has innovated and filled an area that NVIDIA lacks, and has expanded the capabilities of the GeForce GTX 580. Now, you can get NVIDIA's fastest single-GPU and also have triple-display gaming, in combination with a fourth display for desktop use. Setting up this multi-display gaming couldn't be easier. Our evaluation is right in stating that Galaxy deserves kudos for this innovation. This video card may not be for you, or may not be what you are looking for, but that is ok, it does have a place in the market.
 
fanboy said:
In the HD7970 reveiw the card doesn't look like a Gold award winner once you remember that it's overclocked and the HD6970 is right there with it and stock speed and alot cheaper price.
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like brent said innovations man, its the only GTX 580 that supports nvsurround without SLI that alone deserves a gold. you would think EVGA, and ASUS would of already done something like this and if they had obviously it wouldn't be worth a gold award since it was already done in my opinion. but because they are the only one then it deserves it. its just like Sapphires Flex cards. its just a normal 6970/50/870 except for the fact that it does one thing none of the other cards does, allows you to use both DVI + HDMI + DP which in my opinion puts it above any other equivalent 6k series card.

both these technologies from both companies is how Nvidia and AMD should of done it from the start, it shouldn't be Galaxy's or Sapphire's responsibility to fix their mistakes.
 
I'll stick with Nvidia so long as AMD does not offer speed+price 20% better then Nvidia.

So if I had to choose between new GTX 580 from Galaxy and the referent 7970,
I'd take later because of 28nm tipping the scales.

What im trying to say is... I am leaning toward Nvidia,
but I am also somewhat rationalizing my GPU choice,

However I know plenty of people who don't,
and who won't even consider gfx card if its not built by Nvidia.
They are always buying current Nvidia+Intel offering.

Anyway I'll link this article to my cousin who's one of these uneducated biased folks :D

PS: should have been 3GB, and I don't buy OMG need 1800+MB for 1080p

EDIT: to clear things up, those 20% come from:
Nvidia Inspector, game profiles, automatic profiles updating, shitload of AA modes, downscaling,
PhysX, CUDA, better game support (ultraold, ultranew, OpenGL),
decent forum and decent support (I whine - they fix)
super easy driver install - not even a reboot needed, overall easier living/gaming
 
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HohnyF said:
I'll stick with Nvidia so long as AMD does not offer speed+price 20% better then Nvidia.
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That's pretty biased; I will jump ship to either brand if it's faster (or has the features I want) at the same price.

As for the review, I understand that Galaxy & [H] support each other and that the 580 was used in the 7970 review; however, there is not a single mention of the 7970 in this article.

That, I feel, is very misleading. Of course, I would hope that most people will look at what the competition has regardless of what is missing from a review.
 
Hmm... Once again, as per the previous Galaxy MDT 560 card review, the biggest kudos goes to the Galaxy rep who got [H] to review this card in it's own review again. Well done rep!

Looks like a product that is buggy & too late to market to me. Not gold worthy.

What is good and appreciated is Galaxy is still pushing it's R&D department, well done there too.

Good marketing and R&D will pay off eventually.
 
Brent_Justice said:
R.E. Evaluation Format and 7970 Comparison feedback:

Evaluation format was the same as we did for the Galaxy GeForce GTX560 Ti MDT X5 to show specific performance of the video card being evaluated, since it is in its own price class, and the only card of its kind for a GTX 580.

We did show performance of this video card compared to the Radeon HD 7970 in our AMD Radeon HD 7970 Video Card Review, this video card was the sole competition in that evaluation, throughout.
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So the this Galaxy version was used up against the AMD 7970 Reference model. Why didn't you use a GTX refernce with GPU clock speeds of 772mhz?
 
ApeXiTT said:
So the this Galaxy version was used up against the AMD 7970 Reference model. Why didn't you use a GTX refernce with GPU clock speeds of 772mhz?
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for a single card multimonitor benchmark?

LOOOL

Yakk said:
Hmm... Once again, as per the previous Galaxy MDT 560 card review, the biggest kudos goes to the Galaxy rep who got [H] to review this card in it's own review again. Well done rep!

Looks like a product that is buggy & too late to market to me. Not gold worthy.

What is good and appreciated is Galaxy is still pushing it's R&D department, well done there too.

Good marketing and R&D will pay off eventually.
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wow u guys are raging hard
why would you prefer particular card not reviewed

also, implying bias, not kewl..
finnaly may I suggest S|A if you're into AMD total world domination :D
 
HohnyF said:
for a single card multimonitor benchmark?

LOOOL

What does that got to do with anything? I understand they want to put up Nvidia's best offering up against 7970 in the 7970 Review but that is also misleadig because your average consumer does't know any better.
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not the best, just the one that can do Triple-Display gaming
which was the big part of 7970 review.

also...
its a referent design 7970 card which won Editor's Choice - GOLD Award,
and it was praised all along.
 
HohnyF said:
for a single card multimonitor benchmark?

LOOOL





wow u guys are raging hard
why would you prefer particular card not reviewed

also, implying bias, not kewl..
finnaly may I suggest S|A if you're into AMD total world domination :D
Click to expand...

Having a monopoly makes no sense, what product I may prefer is not relevant, and there was no implication of bias (and therefore an erroneous review); just a note about good marketing.

[H] did a single product review as opposed to a comparitive review. Which is fine and interesting. Just less often used in this type of market, but often used in others.
 
Whats with only support for miniscule 1080 monitors. i think people who bought a card at that price would want something professional.
 
"This means that we had to change the resolution in the INI file each time before we launched the game, if we changed graphics options. It was a big annoying overall, having to constantly edit the INI file to the proper resolution." I'm not a programer but if you changed the file to read only, would that help to keep it from being changed.
 
Uncle said:
"This means that we had to change the resolution in the INI file each time before we launched the game, if we changed graphics options. It was a big annoying overall, having to constantly edit the INI file to the proper resolution." I'm not a programer but if you changed the file to read only, would that help to keep it from being changed.
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Problem with that is some games create a new file if its read only that it can change values in, plus you can't save your other graphics settings for the game if its read only. It might work in some games, it might not work in others.
 
Great review Brent! This card may not be for everyone but for what it was created it fits the bill well.
 
What I see this card for: Three big, cheap 720p HDTVs, a bean bag chair, a huge fricken subwoofer and a wireless xbox360 controller.

You could pull it all together for what... $2500? Less than $2k if you cheap out on sound.

Looks like Frys has 50 inch plasmas for $400.
 
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