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When KitGuru originally reviewed the GTX580, it earned our highest award, and deservedly so. It is the fastest single GPU card on the market, and that hasn't changed since it was released. The reference card was released around £420 and it delivered class leading performance with a pretty good standard cooling solution – it was the card the GTX480 should have been.
In the months since we last reviewed the reference sample, Asus released their GTX580 Direct CU II which is easily one of the best nVidia oriented graphics cards on the market – especially when factoring in the proprietary dual fan cooling solution. This monster card can be yours for £390, which in today's market is actually fantastic value for money.
The Zotac GTX 580 AMP! Edition is clocked higher than the Asus card, but the sample we received failed to manually overclock to the same levels. The biggest problem however has yet to come … the price.
Scan are selling the Zotac GTX 580! AMP Edition for £453 inc vat, £63 more than the Asus Direct CU II, which is supplied with a custom PCB and twin fan cooling system – the Zotac card is basically a reference card with a different bios setting. Things get worse as it is not only more expensive than the Asus GTX580 card, but it is £153 more expensive than the Asus HD 6970 Direct CU II. No matter what way I look at it, Zotac have the pricing very wrong, because even if they reduced the price by £60, the custom Asus GTX580 card offers better value for money.
While we love the GTX580, this particular AMP! Edition is pricing itself out of the market. If Zotac had given this the full AMP! treatment, complete with enhanced cooling and custom PCB then it might have made more sense.
Pros:
- GTX580 is Nvidia's finest hour
- great image quality
- good ‘out of the box' clocks
Cons:
- same old reference cooler
- price point is silly
- competition is offering better solutions for less money
KitGuru says: GTX580 rocks, but Zotac need to drop the price, significantly. Worth buying if you can find it at a lower price.
Considering ive seen the HD6990 for £50 more, Zotac clearly have forgotten to check the pricing on this one,.
I always hate to see high end cards with special names, just having a sticker over the reference design. its lazy and I cant believe they think they can get away with charging £70 more than the reference card. Does it cost £70 to flash the bios? Most 580s hit those speeds without any effort. easy way to save the money.
£450? eh, surely thats a typo on scans store.
£900 for 3 screen gaming, bargain lol
£900 before you buy the three screens !
Seriously though, this is a great card, but I agree, the pricing is about £80 too high. I hope people dont realise that every 1mhz of overclock should cost about a £5. most reference GTX580’s hit higher than these clocks without any effort.;
I bought a reference 580 in January for £370 on ebay and I have it running at 850 core and 1100 memory. Basically identical to this, bought two months ago for less money.
My sticker isn’t as nice though :p
GTX580 is nvidias best card, no doubt about it. the pricing is semi reasonable too on most of the models
Wow I was hoping Zotac would have had a nice zalman cooler on this, they normally work with them on these AMP! special models. very poor showing.
After the Asus model that was reviewed here a while ago, this does look rather lacking. I always dislike when companies release a card with a reference cooler, its fine at launch time, but its been a very long time since the 580 was released. a little moer effort from zotac would have been good.
The results are good, but the temperatures due to the reference cooler could have been a lot better. I am not sure I like the asus 3 slot cooler however, but Zotac could have approached this from a higher ground rather than aiming for the entry style cooler on such a high clocked model.