| ASUS ENGTX580 GeForce GTX 580 Video Card |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Video Cards | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Written by Olin Coles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Monday, 22 November 2010 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Page 13 of 19
DX11: Metro 2033Metro 2033 is an action-oriented video game with a combination of survival horror, and first-person shooter elements. The game is based on the novel Metro 2033 by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky. It was developed by 4A Games in Ukraine and released in March 2010 for Microsoft Windows. Metro 2033 uses the 4A game engine, developed by 4A Games. The 4A Engine supports DirectX-9, 10, and 11, along with NVIDIA PhysX and GeForce 3D Vision. The 4A engine is multi-threaded in such that only PhysX had a dedicated thread, and uses a task-model without any pre-conditioning or pre/post-synchronizing, allowing tasks to be done in parallel. The 4A game engine can utilize a deferred shading pipeline, and uses tessellation for greater performance, and also has HDR (complete with blue shift), real-time reflections, color correction, film grain and noise, and the engine also supports multi-core rendering. Metro 2033 featured superior volumetric fog, double PhysX precision, object blur, sub-surface scattering for skin shaders, parallax mapping on all surfaces and greater geometric detail with a less aggressive LODs. Using PhysX, the engine uses many features such as destructible environments, and cloth and water simulations, and particles that can be fully affected by environmental factors. NVIDIA has been diligently working to promote Metro 2033, and for good reason: it's one of the most demanding PC video games we've ever tested. When their flagship GeForce GTX 480 struggles to produce 27 FPS with DirectX-11 anti-aliasing turned two to its lowest setting, you know that only the strongest graphics processors will generate playable frame rates. All of our tests enable Advanced Depth of Field and Tessellation effects, but disable advanced PhysX options.
Metro 2033 Moderate Quality SettingsCost Analysis: Metro 2033 (1920x1200)
Test Summary: There's no way to ignore the graphical demands of Metro 2033, and only the most powerful GPUs will deliver a decent visual experience using moderate quality settings. Even when these settings are turned down, as they were in our tests, Metro 2033 is a power-hungry video game that crushes frame rate performance. Although Metro 2033 offers advanced PhysX options, these settings are available only to NVIDIA GeForce video cards and disabled for all of our tests. Metro 2033 proves to be too much for most video cards even when anti-aliasing is turned to its lowest setting, and causes the GeForce GTX 480 to perform at a barely playable 29.4 FPS. The inability to enjoy PhysX effects doesn't look like a huge drawback considering how low the other settings must be turned down, but that a decision for gamers. The ASUS GeForce GTX 580 may be the most powerful single-GPU video card available, but it's outperformed by the two closest dual-GPU options within its price point when Metro 2033 is involved.
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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.