NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 Graphics Card
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Performance tests
Note: Synthetic tests will be posted later.
Testbed:
- Intel Core i7-975 3340 MHz CPU
- ASUS P6T Deluxe motherboard on the Intel X58 chipset
- 6GB of 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM from Corsair
- WD Caviar SE WD1600JD 160GB SATA HDD
- Tagan TG900-BZ 900W PSU
- Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, DirectX 11
- 30" Dell 3007WFP monitor
- ATI CATALYST 10.10; NVIDIA Drivers 262.99 / 260.99.
- VSync disabled
Benchmarks:
- Far Cry 2 (Ubisoft) -- DirectX 10.0, Shaders 4.0 (HDR), built-in benchmarking utility (the Middle level), maximum settings.
- CRYSIS Warhead (Crytek/EA) -- Cargo, DirectX 10.0, Shaders 4.0, Very High settings, batch file, timedemo available by e-mail request.
- Colin McRae: DiRT 2 (Codemasters) -- DirectX 10.0/11.0, Ultra High settings, run the benchmark as follows: "dirt2.exe -benchmark example_benchmark.xml".
- Metro 2033 (4A Games/THQ) -- DirectX 11.0, Super High settings, PhysX disabled, benchmark is run from the game.
- Just Cause 2 (Avalanche Studios/Eidos Interactive) -- DirectX 11.0, Super High settings, run the benchmark from the in-game menu.
- Aliens vs. Predator (Rebellion/SEGA) -- DirectX 11.0, Shaders 5.0, Very High settings, run the benchmark from the in-game menu.
- Tropics Benchmark 1.3 (Unigine) -- DirectX 10.0, High settings.
- Heaven Benchmark 2.0 (Unigine) -- DirectX 10.0, High settings.
- Heaven Benchmark 2.0 (Unigine) -- DirectX 11.0, High settings.
- 3DMark Vantage 1.02 (FutureMark) -- DirectX 10.0, Shaders 4.0, multitexturing, Extreme settings.
- RightMark3D (iXBT.com) -- DirectX, a synthetic benchmark, Shaders 2.0/2.0b/3.0.
We'd like to thank Unigine for helping us set up their benchmarks.
Long ago we proved how unreliable were test results obtained with the FRAPS utility. Sadly, this only leaves us benchmarks built into games. For this reason we prefer to use a small number of tests, but all of those are transparent and precise. What's more important, they accurately show the correlation of graphics card performance.
Note that we provide the results of standard GeForce GTX 460 768MB/1024MB cards as well as the results of GeForce GTX 460 1024MB cards factory-overclocked to 800/1600 MHz (which is the highest factory overclocking for now). This way you can easily imagine what performance should be in between.
Far Cry 2
Crysis Warhead, Cargo
Colin McRae: DiRT 2
Metro 2033
Just Cause 2
Aliens vs. Predator DirectX 11.0
Unigine Tropics Benchmark
Unigine Heaven Benchmark DirectX 10.0
Unigine Heaven Benchmark DirectX 11.0
3DMark Vantage Graphics Marks
Conclusions
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 1536MB, as you may have expected, is both the absolute performance leader among single-GPU solutions, outperforming the predecessor by 15%-20%, and just the absolute leader, outperforming even the dual-GPU AMD Radeon HD 5970. Note that even where the competitors are equal, or HD 5970 leads, you shouldn't forget about the permanent drawback of dual-GPU cards: abrupt fps changes which happen, because one GPU of such a card processes one frame. This is done to improve average performance ratings, and those are fine even though gameplay may be "jumpy" and uncomfortable. Another drawback of dual-GPU cards is that drivers sometimes are not released as fast as new games are, so a dual-GPU solution may not do its best in a new title. So, other things being equal, a single-GPU graphics card is usually more preferable, even if it's 10% slower than a competing dual-GPU solution.
NVIDIA did a great job, redesigning the cooler. The new one is both much quieter and efficient. It changes speed smoothly, depending on core temperature. Also note that the peak power consumption decreased from 300-320W of GTX 480 to 270-280W.
In general, GeForce GTX 580 is a very balanced and integral solution for enthusiasts willing to pay a lot for high performance in games, especially new ones. We can but congratulate NVIDIA on the release of a successful high-end product, a new 3D performance leader.
As for the SLI mode, you can see that the efficiency of two GTX 580 cards working together is great. Sometimes the performance is just doubled, which is quite rare. Just mind the aforementioned peculiarities and drawbacks of dual-GPU configurations.
Traditionally, we're now expecting AMD to make its move, which obviously won't take too long now.
We express gratitude to NVIDIA for the provided graphics card. The PSU is provided by TAGAN, the monitor is provided by NVIDIA.
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