Review – NVIDIA GTX 580: Fermi at its Best

Conclusions

The new GeForce GTX 580 is faster, cooler, and only consumes a bit more power than the GTX 480 (idle power consumption is even lower than that of the GTX 480). Under the GF110 codename, the GTX 580 exploits the full potential of NVIDIA’s Fermi architecture. This is the way Fermi was meant to be.

Aside from improved technical specification, the GTX 580 also comes equipped with some of the most recent developments in graphics card features, such as the vapor chamber heatsink and active power monitoring mechanism. Among other things, this resulted in relatively lower operating temperatures compared to the GTX 480.

The power monitoring feature works fine. When running FurMark, GTX 580’s power consumption hovers at around 335 watt, lower than the GTX 480, which is obviously disadvantaged by the lack of power monitoring capability. In our DirectX 9, 10, and 11 game benchmarks, it produced remarkably good results, just like what we would expect from the planet’s fastest GPU to date. The frame rate consistently stayed above 30 FPS across all tests. It even went beyond 60 FPS in most cases (except in Metro 2033 under certain graphics settings).

NVIDIA GTX 580 VS NVIDIA GTX 480

GeForce GTX 580 performs better than the GTX 480, that much is clear. It’s not surprising, really, since the GTX 580 holds the upper hand when it comes to technical prowess. In addition, GTX 580’s vapor chamber heatsink effectively dissipates heat from the graphics card, thus suppressing the overall temperature. According to early estimations, the GeForce GTX 580 would be sold for around US$ 499, while the GTX 499 is currently selling under the same price tag. This puts both the GTX 580 and GTX 480 directly head-on against each other, and therefore, we can expect some price adjustments from NVIDIA and partnering graphics card manufacturers, perhaps by cutting GTX 480’s price so as to clear it from the path of its incoming successor.

NVIDIA GTX 580 VS NVIDIA GTX 460 768MB/1GB SLI

In our previous test, the impressive GeForce GTX 460 SLI duet managed to stay toe-to-toe with the GTX 480 and even outperformed it in several instances. That is enough a reason to compare this duo with a single GTX 580. As it turned out, a combo of two, 768 MB GeForce GTX 460 in SLI is no match for the GTX 580. Only the 1-GB version of GeForce GTX 460 (also in SLI) is able to keep up with the mighty GTX 580. They are roughly equal in terms of performance. However, keep in mind that SLI configuration requires two separate PCIe x16 slots and proper SLI support from the motherboard, not to mention the additional space required to contain the second card. In this manner, the GTX 580 is a more practical solution since all the graphics power is available for immediate use without requiring further adjustments.

NVIDIA GTX 580 VS AMD Radeon HD 6850 Crossfire (Dual Graphics Card) dan AMD (ATI) Radeon HD 5970

We were originally planning to compare the AMD (ATI) Radeon HD 5870 directly with the GeForce GTX 580, because each of these cards is the fastest single-GPU solution from their respective brands so far. However, the two graphics cards are not positioned in the same class and price range. Usually, the price point reflects a graphics card’s performance. AMD Radeon HD 5870 currently sells for under US$ 399, while the GTX 480 has a planned price (according to early estimates) of US$ 499 or above. Also, the AMD Radeon HD 5870 is not exactly a direct competitor of GTX 480.

Finally, we decided to compare the GTX 580 with some dual-GPU solutions from AMD, the Radeon HD 5970 and two AMD Radeon HD 6850 cards in Crossfire. The price points of these cards are roughly similar to the GTX 580. Aside from that, they were also able to keep up with this fastest chip from NVIDIA. It means that, for the mean time, you need a dual-GPU card to compete with the GTX 580, at least until AMD releases their high-end HD 6000 variants.