Introducing Nvidia’s GTX 580 – Fermi Improved!

Power Usage

Power usage is important for many people as a very hot running GPU is not only not “green”, it throws warm air into your room that your air conditioner must work extra hard to compensate for. Of course, for those of us like this editor who lives where it is cooler than warmer, a small space-heater in ones PC is a plus. We have seen that the GTX 480’s TDP specification, which is 250W, is far more than the HD 5870’s 188W TDP – and both the GTX 580 and the GTX 480 requires 6-pin+8-pin PCIe connectors as shown below in the reference and also in Galaxy’s GTX 480 SOC version.   As we contrast the GTX 480 with the HD 5870, only 6-pin+6-pin PCIe connectors are required for the Radeon. You will also note that the reference Diamond HD 5870 is physically longer than the reference GeForce 480 and some cutting modification had to be made to the Cooler Master Gladiator 600 to accomodate it.  In fact, the Galaxy GTX 480 SOC is even longer than our HD 5870 and we had to remove the HD cage in our oversized mid-tower Thermaltake Element G to accommodate it. In contrast, the faster GTX 580 is only 10.5 inches long and fits into most mid-towers easily just as the reference GTX 480 does.

The reference GTX 480’s performance does come at a power cost; compare the system total power draw at the wall with the with the HD 5870 first – at idle and then at maximum GPU usage when running FurMark with the exact same system back in April. Now the total system power draw from the wall with the same PC, but with the GTX 480 inside instead of the HD 5870. First, we see the idle state and then with the GTX GPU maxed out running FurMark. . Of course, the second image is of our overclocked GTX 480. We see that we would be pulling well over 250W from the wall; today we pulled almost 50 watts more than the reference GTX 480 version with the same PC as we saw 550W with the overclocked Galaxy GTX 480 SOC. FurMark will stress a GPU’s stability and give the maximum thermals that one would never see in-game. You can consider FurMark’s torture tests, “worst case” scenarios for power and heat. Here is a screen shot of FurMark running at 2560×1600 with the Reference GTX 480: The reference GTX 480 is very hot at 97 C. Now compare the temperatures with the overclocked Galaxy GTX 480 SOC at its peak of only 70C running Furmark; but first notice that the overclocked Galaxy GTX 480 SOC will pull about fifty more watts than the reference GTX 480, requiring that you have a very stable PSU:

Now let’s compare the reference GTX 480 at 97 C with the Galaxy GTX SOC running the same Furmark hot-as-hell test at 70C, or 27C cooler with the Galaxy’s quiet Arctic Cooler:

The reference GTX 480 definitely runs toasty at 97C as “worst case” but the reference cooling solution appears up to the task with plenty of noise. In cold contrast, the Galaxy GTX 480 SOC has tamed the thermals quietly by hitting only 70 C in Furmark and it never seems to leave the 50s C during actual gaming!! That is 97C for a reference GTX 480 vs. 70C for the Galaxy GTX 450 SOC – all the while, the Galaxy’s overclocked GPU is putting out 50 more watts!

This time we are unable to provide you with a solid apples to apples comparison with Furmark by running GTX 580.  This new card has has added a power draw limitation system to their card. Three sensors measure the inrush current and voltage on all 12 V lines (PCI-E slot, 6-pin, 8-pin) to calculate power. As soon as the power draw exceeds a predefined limit, the card will automatically clock down much the same as it does when a safe temperature is exceeded.  As with temperatures, this limiter will restore clocks as soon as the overcurrent has ended.  We are uncertain how this new safety feature will affect extreme overclockers.

UPDATE:  We have managed to workaround the GTX 580 power draw limiter by using an old version of FurMark.  In that case, it draws as much power as our overclocked GTX 480!  A version of GPU-Z has also recently been released that gives the option to disable this limiter.

We will emphasize however, that the GTX 580 runs much cooler than the reference GTX 580 and is far quieter.  When the GTX 580 spins up under load, it is about as quiet as the HD 5870; in contrast, the reference GTX 480 was much like the much nosier, last generation dual-GPU card, HD 4870-X2.  We can confirm also that our GTX 280 is noticeably louder than the GTX 580 at every fan speed.  In actual games, the GTX 580 runs far cooler than the stock GTX 480 and – unlike with the GTX 480 – you can handle handle your new card right after you turn off your PC.