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To test this high end card today we have built a system with suitable matching components, based around a liquid cooled 12 core Intel i7 970 processor overclocked to 4.33ghz with 6GB of GKILL memory running at 1800mhz with tight timings. We will be mixing the resolutions, as we know that less than 1 percent of the audience have access to a 30 inch screen.
Processor: Core i7 970 @ 4.33ghz
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)
Monitors: Dell U2410 UltraSharp, LaCie 730, Iiyama Prolite E2472HDD x2
Other graphics cards for comparisons:
Nvidia GTX590
Nvidia GTX580
Nvidia GTX570
XFX HD5970 Black Edition 4GB (QuadFireX)
AMD HD6990
AMD HD6970
AMD HD6950
AMD HD6870
AMD HD6850
AMD HD5870
AMD HD5850
MSI N560GTX Ti Twin Frozr II
nVidia GTX570
nVidia GTX460 OC (715/900)
Software:
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
Unigine Heaven Benchmark
3DMark Vantage
3DMark 11
Catalyst 11.4
Forceware 270.51 WHQL
Fraps Professional
Steam Client
FurMark
ShaderToy
Stone Giant Benchmark
HQV 2.0 Software
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:
Mafia 2
Resident Evil 5
Far Cry 2
Alien V Predator
Lost Planet 2
Metro 2033
Colin McRae Dirt 2
STALKER: Clear SKy
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Dead Space 2
Total War: Shogun 2
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.
Wow that is an amazing looking card. if they could drop the price I think it would sell great for them, ive never seen a 580 peak at 60c in furmark
Wait a minute, are they seriously trying to charge £500 in the UK for a GTX580? thats only 60 less than a 590 !
This has to be voted as one of the prettiest video cards on the market. ever. Its what LL Cool J would have in his rap days.
Nice cooler, if they dropped the price by £100 it would be a great buy, not sure how they worked that out. its not worth £80 more than the Asus Direct CU II, regardless of gold fans.
That is a brilliant graphics card, and I like the PCB design, I wish nvidia had gotten it right with the 590, but maybe thats why partners are charging so much for 580, they know its much better really long term. ?
QUESTION TO THE REVIEWER:
The review says the Zotac GTX 580 AMP² is the model reviewed, and clearly lists 1.5GB…but the Zotac website lists the AMP² as having 3GB. So what model was really reviewed, please? The 3GB AMP²? Or the 1.5GB AMP?
Thanks in advance.
GPuz screen is right on page 2, is 3GB.
Thanks, Zardon, and thanks for the review. FYI page one needs correcting, it currently reads “ships with a 815mhz core clock, an increase from 772mhz on the reference card, and the 1536MB of GDDR5 memory is overclocked from 1002mhz to 1026mhz”
Thanks, sorry about that. fixed.