Introducing Nvidia’s GTX 580 – Fermi Improved!
Test Configuration
Test Configuration – Hardware
- Intel Core i7 920 reference 2.66 GHz and overclocked to 3.8 GHz); Turbo is off.
- Gigabyte EX58-UD3R (Intel X58 chipset, latest BIOS, PCIe 2.0 specification; CrossFire/SLI 16x+16x).
- 6 GB OCZ DDR3 PC 1800 Kingston RAM (3×2 GB, tri-channel at PC 1600 speeds; 2×2 GB supplied by Kingston)
- GeForce GTX 580, 1.5 GB reference design and clocks, supplied by Nvidia
- GeForce GTX 480, 1.5 GB reference design and clocks, supplied by Nvidia
- Galaxy GTX 480 SOC; 1.5 GB, overclocked version and overclocked further, supplied by Galaxy
- ATI Radeon HD 5870 (1GB, overclocked clocks, 850/1200 MHz) by Diamond
- ATi Radeon HD 6870 (1GB, reference clocks, 900/1050 MHz) supplied by AMD
- Onboard Realtek Audio
- Two identical 250 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 hard drives configured and set up identically from drive image; one partition for Nvidia GeForce drivers and one for ATI Catalyst drivers
- Thermaltake ToughPower 775 W power supply unit supplied by Thermaltake
- Thermaltake Element G Case supplied by Thermaltake
- Noctua NH-U12P SE2 CPU cooler, supplied by Noctua
- Philips DVD SATA writer
- HP LP3065 2560×1600 thirty inch LCD
Test Configuration – Software
- ATi Catalyst 10-10; highest quality mip-mapping set in the driver, Catalyst AI set to “Standard”; surface performance optimizations are off
- NVIDIA GeForce 262.99 beta release drivers for GTX 480; High Quality
- Windows 7 64-bit; very latest updates
- DirectX July 2010
- All games are patched to their latest versions.
- vsync is off in the control panel and is never set in-game.
- Varying AA enabled as noted in games and “forced” in Catalyst Control Center for UT3 and Batman: Arkham Asylum; all in-game settings are specified with 16xAF always applied; 16xAF forced in control panel for Crysis.
- All results show average, minimum and maximum frame rates except as noted.
- Highest quality sound (stereo) used in all games.
- Windows 7 64, all DX10 titles were run under DX10 render paths; DX11 titles under DX11 render paths.
The Benchmarks
- Vantage
- Call of Juarez
- Crysis
- Far Cry 2
- Just Cause 2
- X3:Terran Conflict
- Dirt 2
- Lost Planet
- Lost Planet 2
- Unreal Tournament 3
- Resident Evil 5
- STALKER, Call of Pripyat
- Batman: Arkham Asylum
- H.A.W.X.
- H.A.W.X. 2
- Battleforge
- Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
- F.E.A.R.
- Call of Duty 4
- Alien vs. Predator
- Serious Sam, Second Encounter HD (2010)
- Metro 2033
- Mafia II
- Grand Theft Auto IV
- Heaven 2
Amazing review guys, I wonder if I can evolve my GTX 480 to 580 using EVGA’s RMA process. I need maor powah!!!
I think this is the best GTX 580 review I’ve seen on the net! And I’ve read almost all of them. Thanks for testing so many game titles and especially DX9 titles. I still run XP, so it’s important for me to see how the card did in them. Most reviews only have one or two DX9 games tested, some don’t have any. After reading this review I made up my mind about getting this card. Thanks!
Oh, and I forgot to ask: please use same titles when reviewing the upcoming HD 6970. Thanks!
I had 3 580 GTX’s in my system using a Core i7 980x, and it crashed during minesweeper.
How did it go with the step up program?
Thanks for the kind words. And I generally use the same titles and same settings for the high end cards.
I will be very busy for the next few days.
A very comprehensive review.
It seems that Nvidia has upped its game. I’ve always preferred single GPU solutions over SLI or Crossfire, as have many others, although right now this is out of my budget. It exceeded expectations – cooler and faster. I wonder what AMD’s response will be like.