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For our testing today we have built two systems specifically to target two markets. While it would be easy for us to test solely at 2560×1600 we believe that a very small portion of the audience have a 30 inch screen.
System One today is a mid range enthusiast system with a Core i7 950 processor overclocked to 3.8ghz – a figure easily achievable by the majority of people reading this review. We are using a 24 inch Dell Ultrasharp U2410 screen with this system build. To many people this will be a high end system, but if you are interested in a GTX580, it can safely be considered ‘mid range'. We will compare the GTX580 against current and last generation mid range boards to document any improvements if you wanted to spend more money on a graphics card upgrade. These review pages are market with a ‘mid sys' in the header.
System Two is a high end enthusiast system with a Core i7 970 processor overclocked to 4.3ghz with liquid cooling. This is a system that not many people will be able to afford, but we need to make sure we cover the higher level audience who will be contemplating a purchase of this card. We are using a 30 inch Hazro Ultra Sharp HZ230Wi screen with this system build. We will compare the GTX580 against other high end boards in the current and last generation. These review pages are market with a ‘high sys' in the header.
System One (Mid Range Enthusiast System).
Validation available here
Processor: Core i7 950 @ 3.8ghz
Cooling: Thermaltake Frio
Motherboard: Asrock X58 Extreme6
Chassis: Antec Dark Fleet DF 85
Power Supply: Corsair AX850
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 6GB (2gbx3) @ 760 MHz (2:8) @ 8-8-8-24
Storage: OCZ Agility II @ WD 2TB HD (storage)
Monitor: Dell Ultrasharp U2410 Rev A00
System Two (High End Enthusiast System)
Validation available here
Processor: Core i7 970 @ 4.3ghz
Cooling: Coolit Vantage
Motherboard: MSI X58A-GD65 (MS-7522)
Chassis: Thermaltake Level 10
Power Supply: Corsair Ax1200
Memory: 6GB GSkill Performance Gaming ram @ 902.9 MHz (2:10) @ 7-8-7-24
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V+ 512GB Gen 2 SSD (Storage) / Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB (OS boot)
Monitor: Hazro Ultra Sharp HZ230Wi
Other graphics cards for comparisons:
Powercolor HD6870 PCS+ (940/1100)
eVGA GTX460 FTW
MSI GTX460 Talon
Nvidia GTX 480
Nvidia GTX470
AMD HD5970
AMD HD6870
AMD HD5870
eVGA GTX460 768MB SC
Nvidia GTX460 reference board (1gb)
AMD HD6850
XFX HD5830 XXX
nVidia GTS 450
AMD HD5770
XFX HD5750 XXX
AMD HD5750
Software:
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
Unigine Heaven Benchmark
3DMark Vantage
3DMark 11
Catalyst 10.10 Driver
Fraps Professional
Steam Client
FurMark
TessMark
Forceware 263.09 WHQL
Catalyst 10.10
Technical Monitoring and Test Equipment:
Keithley Integra unit
Thermal Diodes
Raytek Laser Temp Gun 3i LSRC/MT4 Mini Temp
Extech digital sound level meter & SkyTronic DSL 2 Digital Sound Level Meter
Games:
Resident Evil 5
Colin McRae Dirt 2
Lost Planet 2
Far Cry 2
STALKER: Clear Sky
Metro 2033
Alien V Predator
Mafia 2
BattleField: Bad Company
All the latest BIOS updates and drivers are used during testing. We perform under real world conditions, meaning KitGuru tests all games across five closely matched runs and average out the results to get an accurate median figure.
Worth the wait Z 🙂 what a stunning card. way more than I would ever use on my modest screen, but incredible. thanks
I want one of these but im still saving. thanks for the review. I mainly play battlefield BC2 and it seems awesome for that engine.
wow, that power consumption is crazy, but great performance, imagine running two of these in SLI with the limiters off. 600 watts max !
lol.!
Good to see a review of this here, wondered why it wasnt up earlier. Serious levels of performance and im really tempted, but its difficult to justify spending so much money on a video card. also glad to see you did an ‘upgrade style’ section for 24 inch screens, as ill never spend £1100 on a monitor for 1600p.
Still not sold, waiting on 6970.
Well if you are expecting 6970 to beat this I would suspect you are sadly mistaken, as the leaked slides on the hardware show much more limited bandwidth, even if the clocks are higher. I would think the 6970 might have a hard time beating the 570, nevermind the 580. As much as it pains me to say it.
6970 will be cheaper tho, from what I read,. 580 is expensive, way out of my price range. 6950 might be moer affordable if its under 300.
who is the dude in here buying this to play battlefield BC2? are you mad in the head? seriously, get a 460, save the extra, put the money into getting a couple of decent games which use the hardware.
460 GTX in SLI or GTX580? any ideaS?
Good review KG.
460 performance testing here http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/12/02/geforce_gtx_580_vs_460_1gb_sli/
wow, nice design. weird abotu the software hacks to remove the protection system, surely thats dangerous!
Im waiting for 6950. should be at the limit of my price range.
Very hard to find here where I am, I almost got one and they sold out by the time I got home. nvidia need to sort out the supply, same with 570
Bought an overclocked ASUS 580 last week, love it. you should review it, better than this far eastern crap.
That doesnt make a lot of sense toasted hammock. all these cards come from the ‘far east’.
I am leaving a weird mesage. but thanks for the info on the 30 inch monitor you are using, its under 800 new in the UK, what a friggin deal
Those Hazro screens are brilliant, I’ve been looking at swapping out my Dell 3007 for a while now, can you add a picture next to the Dell you’re using for comparison? Also tell me if they’ve changed the god awful colors on the on screen display? k thx
Tim, i would be very skeptical about any “slides”. Fud obtained slides relating to the soon to be released AMD cards and back-tracked, citing irregularities and that they would report back with information from more genuine sources.
Yeah, i agree, it is hard to know what the situation is. I doubt they will beat the 580gtx though, cause I hear the 6970 is going to be considerably cheaper, so if its 20 percent slower but 30 percent cheaper (not true, just a figure im pulling out of my ass here). it might make a good choice. especially if they get the power drain down big time.
GTX580, great card, completely sold, but still waiting for some better cooling. Reference design is far from perfect and there is plenty of room for improvements. For now all GTX580s are exactly the same (just like SF-based SSDs), just with different stickers on the acrylic shroud and fan.
Is KitGuru on nVidia’s shit list, did the Kit say something bad about dear leaders “Can of whoop ass” products, because this was a real long wait before a review of a nVidia product.
So you did not get review samples, good for you, F… nVidia’s PR machine and just give us honest reviews 😀
Is there a reason the older Dx10 Stalker Clear Sky is being used and not the more current Dx11 based Stalker Call of Pripyat?
Yes, I was experiencing some issues with the newer title which I need more time to investigate.