Introducing the GTX 570 – the GTX 480’s Performance at $349
Conclusion
This has been quite an enjoyable – if physically exhausting – three days, hand’s on experience for us in comparing our brand-new, under-NDA, GTX 570 versus our other nine video cards and we look forward to evaluating further new products from AMD and Nvidia.
We used all “fresh” testing with the very latest drivers for all of these video cards and we wish that we had more than the 3 days that we were allowed to benchmark the GTX 570 so as to give you our first impressions. Fortunately, we have been gaming for months with the reference GTX 480 and with our HD 5870 along with our other test cards, so that we can provide you with a reliable comparison. However, it was certainly worth it and we feel priviliged to bring you our very first benchmarks and performance testing of Nvidia’s amazingly improved GTX 570.
We like the new GTX 570 quite a lot and it has exceeded this editor’s own expectations. Soon we will cover AMD’s continued launch of their HD 6000 series Cayman GPU which they expect to take on GF110. In the meantime, feel free to comment below, ask questions or have a detailed discussion in our ABT forum. If you have any requests on what you would like for us to focus on for further testing or for any other information, please join our ABT forum or leave a comment.
GTX 580
Pros and Cons:
Pros:
- The GTX 570 is much faster than its competition, HD 5870 and is slightly faster than GTX 480; Nvidia has brought $500 performance into a $350 package.
- There is further room for overclocking and good scalibility.
- New architecture brings support for GPU computing and a level of performance way beyond the last generation.
- DX11 and great support for tessellation, PhysX and CUDA, 3D gaming, and 2D/3D Surround (with SLI) bring realism to gaming
- Nvidia’s new vapor chamber cooler is great for achieving and keeping your OC by keeping your GPU cool. It is one awesome cooler that tames GTX 570’s thermals very quietly, bringing GTX 570 performance at or near HD 5870 volume levels.
- Power draw and thermals have improved; current limiters may be a mixed blessing – great for protecting the system (but may limit extreme overclocking).
- If you are considering SLI (for performance, 3D or Suround), 2 x GTX 570 is a very potent performance solution and two of these cards are designed to be put close together and still exhaust air and stay cool
Cons:
- Price and uncertainty about AMD’s Cayman. The market will decide.
That’s it. For about the same price or slightly more than a reference GTX 480 or an overclocked version, you get all the features that Nvidia video cards have to offer in a very solidly-built, cool and quiet-running GTX 570! Add to this all the benefits of a flagship card, and we feel that Nvidia has a real winner in their GTX 570 to offer us and we are pleased to award them our ABT Great Value Editor’s Choice award! Editor’s choice as it exceeded this editor’s expectations by quite a bit and Great Value as Nvidia has succeeded in bringing the performance of the $500 GTX 480 into a $350 package that is much cooler running and quieter to boot!
We do not know what the future will bring, but this amazing card brings a great value to the Fermi family of GTX “tanks” in Nvidia’s lineup. Look for it at an etailer this week. This editor believes that Nvidia brings a very remarkable full-featured DX11 GPU lineup to the market that will find good acceptance among customers and their fans alike. Fermi architecture is impressive and flexible and it does translate to performance in gaming – although with a bit of a price premium.
We have also seen Nvidia’s drivers improve and their multi-GPU SLI scaling for newer games is very impressive. We also like the direction they are heading in with their simplified installations of the GeForce 260 drivers.
If you currently game on a HD 4870, 8800 GTX, 8800 GTS, or 9800 GT class of card on up to HD 4870-X2, GTX 280, GTX 285 and even GTX 295, you will do yourself a big favor by upgrading. The move to a GTX 570 will give you better visuals on the DX11 pathway and you are no doubt thinking of GTX 580 SLI if you want to get even higher performance or want to use Suround’s three-panel display (which we are going to explore in a future article versus Eyefinity).
If the many exclusive features of the new GTX 480 appeal to you and you are gaming at 1920×1080 or above, you cannot go wrong with a GTX 580. In this editor’s experience, it is also great choice if you are considering overclocking further.
The competition is hot as the prices on both the HD 5970 and the HD 5870 have softened and they offer their own set of features including a cheaper way to experience 3-panel multi-display with Eyefinity. And AMD is also bringing out their Cayman-based highest performing single GPU video cards out shortly. Stay tuned, there is a lot coming from us at ABT. Mark Poppin ABT Senior Editor
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Amazing GPU! now I wish I didn’t get a GTX 480
Oh well, this one will keep me satisfied till 2013 at least.
This is another kick-ass review.. 23 games covered with practical settings/resolutions that an enthusiast gamer would choose with the card is by far the biggest number of games covered in a benchmark review. It is so far ahead of the next hardware review website, that comes up at 2nd place with 16 games. That’s why I love AlienBabelTech!!
plz ABT do a gtx 570 sli review plz.
Thank-you.
I’d love to do a GTX 570 SLI review. It will depend on getting another GTX 570 for review. I am scheduled to do a CrossFire-X review versus SLI for early next year. So far, GTS 450, GTX 460 and GTS 480 will represent SLI and we will have HD 5780 and HD 6000 series.
Rubbish review….don’t bench OC’d cards vs stock ones, the stock ones can be OC’d as well. I know my GTX 480 hits over 900 core which nets me about 20% in most benchmarks….stock vs stock or max oc vs max oc, not stock vs oc as that is stupid.
ALL of the cards are all benched at stocked versus stock speeds. In this case – beside the stock GTX 570 – the overclocked GTX 570 is included as an ‘extra’ to show its framerate scaling with increased clockspeeds since this particular review is all about the GTX 570. In earlier evaluations we covered overclocking the GTX 480 and in each review we overclock our target card in addition to showing it at its stock clocks.