AMD last week sprung its new mid-range (but actually it delivers previous generation high-end performance) graphics card series on us with the HD 6870 and HD 6850. You can check out our review of the HD 6870. I found the card to be slightly lagging behind the current flagship HD 5870, but barely enough to be noticeable when playing games.
AMD is gearing up for the HD 6900 series later this month, but in the meantime, Nvidia has released its new performance champion; the GTX 580. The card is shipping as we speak, and two local retailers have already listed it. Prophecy has it for R5390, and LandmarkPC is asking R5292.
It is fairly massive amount of cash to pay for a single component, but then this is Nvidia, and it is easily the fastest single GPU graphics card in the world. Fudzilla’s review of the card suggests it even beats AMD’s dual GPU behemoth, the HD5970 in a number of instances.
The GTX 580 is essentially a revamped GTX 480. It is considered by many to be what Fermi should have been at launch. The GPU runs at 772MHz, while the shaders clock 1544MHz. The impressive 384-bit bus is accompanied by 1.5GB of GDDR5 RAM clocked at 2000MHz. As expected, the specs are enough to get most hardware nuts excited.
Even more impressive, is that Nvidia has managed to squeeze all this into the same dimensions as the GTX 480. The card is 26.67 centimetres long, and most excitingly, ships with a default vapour chamber cooler. Anyone who has owned one of Sapphire’s VaporX cooled cards will understand just how quiet and cool this system runs. For more on that, check out our indepth look at the GTX 580’s new cooling system.
The card also consumes less power than the GTX 480; 50W less to be specific.
All in all, it is an extremely attractive proposition. Not only is it notably faster than any single GPU card released to date, but it also features a nicely optimized energy footprint. Of course, how it compares to the upcoming HD 6900 series cards in terms of price and performance will be a determining factor in the card’s value proposition.
The cards are currently making their way to the various corners of the globe, and we can expect to see them available locally within the next 2 weeks.
