Introducing Nvidia’s GTX 580 – Fermi Improved!
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Batman: Arkham Asylum is an action-adventure/stealth video game based on DC Comics’ Batman. Arkham Asylum is based directly on the long-running comic book’s Dark Knight character. The Joker devised an elaborate plot from inside Arkham Asylum that Batman is personally forced to put a stop to. The game’s primary characters are superbly voiced by the actors Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill and Arleen Sorkin who reprise their roles as Batman, the Joker and Harley Quinn.
The game is played as an over-the-shoulder, third-person perspective action-adventure game with a primary focus on Batman’s combat abilities, stealth, detective skills and complete with an arsenal of gadgets that can be used in both combat and as exploring in “detective mode”.The game uses a “Freeflow” combat system as well as the ability to use Batarangs and the Bat-Claw. The player also has access to progressively stronger counter attacks as well as a special attack that can quickly take down a single foe. Stealth tactics includes silent takedowns by sneaking up on foes including dropping and/or gliding from overhead perches.
Batman: Arkham Asylum uses a highly modified version of the Unreal Engine 3. It does not support AA natively but must be added in and supported by the game’s developer. Unfortunately we cannot compare Batman: Arkham Asylum using our GeForce exactly against the Radeon with PhysX on. In the game’s control panel, the settings are also different, depending if you play with a GeForce or a Radeon.
This time we did something different from our usual testing – we simply did not test the Radeons as a direct comparison with the GeForce cards. The developer optimized MSAA for GeForce cards in game but you must set non-optimized AA in the Catalyst Control Center with a substantially higher performance hit on the Radeons. Only the Game of the Year Edition of Batman: Arkham Asylum supports in-game AA settings for both Radeon and GeForce cards. We have purchased that edition and will test with it in subsequent evaluations.
We begin testing at 2560×1600 with details maxed and with 8xMSAA applied in the game’s setting control panel.
In each case, both cards at any clockspeed and are able to offer similar playing experiences as the minimums are sufficiently high even at 2560×1600 with details maxed and with 8xMSAA applied. 1920×1200 can only be faster.
Even when it is highly overclocked, the GTX 480 falls short of the reference GTX 580. There is absolutely no problem playing this game fully maxed out with with either the GTX 480 or GTX 580 and this game would be a superb candidate for playing in 3D Vision or even 3D Surround.
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.