| ASUS ENGTX580 GeForce GTX 580 Video Card |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Video Cards | |
| Written by Olin Coles | |
| Monday, 22 November 2010 | |
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GeForce GTX 580 Closer LookCompared to the bulging heat-pipes on the GeForce GTX 480, NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 580 actually looks like it belongs to the GTX 470 family. Both the GTX 480 and the new GeForce GTX 580 have profiles that measure 10.5" long and occupy two card slots, but the GTX 580 drops the 1/2-inch protruding nerf bars and wears a svelte 3.875" waistline. Not surprisingly, it also weighs considerably less, too. In terms of appearance, the ASUS ENGTX580 is identical to NVIDIA's reference design with exception to branding labels.
Although the power demands have been reduced, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 still requires an eight-pin and six-pin PCI-E power connection. Similar to the GTX 480 shroud design, the GeForce GTX 580 shares an identical vent near the header panel.
NVIDIA has designed the shroud with a deeper chamfer depression for the blower motor fan, allowing more air to reach the intake whenever two or more video cards are combined in close-proximity SLI configurations.
Popular in the world of CPU coolers, NVIDIA has used a hollow vapor chamber to provide a robust thermal management system on the GeForce GTX 580. This will bring into question the need for add-in card partners to design their own cooling solution, and challenge them to produce better results.
Pictured below is the heatsink component, with the vapor chamber residing inside the copper portion. The polished copper contact surface mates together with the GF110 GPU, as the blower motor fan drives air past the aluminum fins and outside the computer case.
NVIDIA offers a mini-HDMI 1.4a digital A/V output on the GeForce GTX 580, which add-in partners may further extend with a full-size adapter. Dual dual-link DVI digital outputs are retained on the GTX 580, which still means that at least two GeForce video cards will be needed for a NVIDIA 3D-Vision Surround functionality.
In the next section, we'll peel off the plastic shroud and take a detailed look at ASUS GeForce GTX 580...
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Comments
Using your own example, if someone is to purchase a new motherboard simply for the benefit of a new PCI-E 3.0 specification, which entails a new processor and possibly memory, why wouldn't they also buy the best graphics card now? You can't have it both ways, Harry.
Just take a look inside any ATI/nvidia release notes and you'll see that the vast majority of bugs are in multi-card configurations.
I'm willing to sacrifices 10% performance and pay 10% more for the more simple/compatible option.
( not only in resolution but in pure/massive imaginary scope )
This attitude is very de-moralizing.
Why even read a graphic card benchmark review if you live for the "status quo"? Just git yerself a console and button mash to that.
The graphic card arms race assures me a future with tesselation, vsm soft shadows, and
global illumination:
##youtube.com/watch?v=Dd8yMPZzWfE&feature=related
none of which is or will be ready for prime time if we don't fan the flames.
The product is coming.
Its clear its not worth yet buying it unless you dont thrust SLI and you have power consuption/heat issues.
BUT, since SLI is only relevant in few games its a factor to be considered.
Many already rushed to the market to buy the vanilla 580, i suppose many more will go to the premium that are coming.
Additionally, you claim that software doesn't exist to warrant the need for products like the GTX 580, and I believe this to be untrue. Have you ever tried playing Crysis with all the graphical glory it was designed with? How about Metro 2033, Lost Planet 2, or Mafia II? Sure, you can play them with PhysX disabled and AA/AF turned down low, but that's like watching movies in standard definition. The logic of this argument also means that DVD and Blu-ray are unnecessary technologies, and VHS was 'good enough'. Not everybody wants to stand still... some of us enjoy the slow march forward.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH for this review. I hope you get a raise.
Curious to see how far partners can push this card though. The improvements made to the 480 from release to now have been pretty impressive, so wondering if similar gains can be made with the 580, or if this is already pushing the limit (without causing a massive increase in power consumption and removing throttling).
GTX 580 in India is for 770$ !!!
GTX 570 will be at 520$ for me....
i saw ferrari ships for 20$-84$ if u order some merchandise...
So is there any chances i can get that GTX 580 in 550$ here???
As you rightly mention, Ferrari do not make cars that are the most fuel efficient at 60Mph, they know that there are buyers out there who want the best at any price.
Also it would be interesting to see the scores mapped to a dollar/performance index to see where the best gain is to be had.
Further its interesting that the cf/sli scores are slightly different with other reviews where the 580 consistently (well almost) had scored lower than the 5970.
I know many think hey its a dual gpu card but hey it costs less and you can still cf/sli it so I dont really see the point they are trying to make.
Imo Nvidia is on the right track and the 460 and 580 is really good cards but atm they are basically catching up and I am waiting to see what the response from AMD is before I commit to an upgrade.
If the Radeon HD 5970 can clear it by 35-40% in Crysis and Heaven, then look at where the GTX 580 sits against the Radeon 5970 on those tests in this article.
Sadly they make only high end chips these days too, then crippling them down to a price category.
So these new cards are fast but far less than they should be - and they should be 50-100% faster in everything, especially in 'future' games that really use their new feats.
Hey, so to clarify I was only trying to make what Harry was saying a little more clear as I assumed there was some misunderstanding. I agree with you in every way as to what you replied, and I should say that your comparison to Ferrari and Lamroghini was spot on. I am definately in the casual group but not by choice, lol. I would, if i could afford, like to stay up with all the newest hardware as I am a firm believer that your rig is only as strong as its weakest component. My gtx 260's: Do they play even Crysis on appealing settings at a decent enough frame rate? Yes I can push them to relatively high settings and play at about 30 or more FPS. BUUUUUT I want a GTX 580 so I can crank that up just as much as the next guy HAHA. Either way I liked your review and found it very informative.