Overclocked NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 Round-Up
Test System and 3DMark
HOW WE CONFIGURED THE TEST SYSTEM: In order to provide comparable results, the graphics cards tested here were installed on the same, high end X58 based test system. The components we used consisted of an Asus Rampage III Extreme motherboard, Core i7 980X Extreme Edition processor, and 6GB of OCZ Blade memory. Within the BIOS, we configured the processor to an overclocked speed of 4.27GHz and memory to 1857MHz.
We feel these settings will minimize the occurrences of CPU performance bottlenecks during benchmark runs and allow the graphics cards to show their true potential. Furthermore, our Crucial M225 solid state drive entered the testing process with a clean copy of Windows 7 Professional 64-bit installed. Once installation was complete, we fully updated the OS and installed the latest drivers and applications relevant to the review article.
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Hardware Used: Gigabyte N580UD GTX 580 |
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To get a sense of how fast these overclocked GTX 580's really are, we gathered several of the most powerful cards currently on the market. From AMD, we tested the XFX HD 5970 Black Edition, Asus DirectCU II HD 6970, and HD 6950. We also ran numbers from a Zotac GTX 570 Amp! Edition, the next step down from a GTX 580. For reference, we tested MSI's card at stock speeds and posted those results as well. The group of GPU's we're comparing in this article represent the best of the best from both NVIDIA and AMD.
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Futuremark's synthetic 3D gaming benchmark, 3DMark Vantage, is specifically bound to Windows Vista-based systems because it uses some advanced visual technologies that are only available with DirectX 10. With this latest version of the benchmark, Futuremark has incorporated new graphics tests, CPU tests, several feature tests, and support for the latest PC hardware. We tested the graphics cards here with 3DMark Vantage's Extreme and Performance preset options. |
With a new DX11 test out, we probably won't post DX10 Vantage numbers much longer. Nevertheless, we find all three factory overclocked 580's occupying top spots. It seems that even modest increases in GPU and memory clocks can bump Vantage performance noticeably. Note the 580's edge out the HD 5970 using the performance preset, but not in extreme mode.
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The latest version of Futuremark's synthetic 3D gaming benchmark, 3DMark11, is specifically bound to Windows 7-based systems because it uses the advanced visual technologies that are only available with DirectX 11, which isn't available on previous versions of Windows. 3DMark11 isn't simply a port of 3DMark Vantage to DirectX 11, though. With this latest version of the benchmark, Futuremark has incorporated four new graphics tests, a physics tests, and a new combined test. We tested the graphics cards here with 3DMark11's Extreme and Performance preset options. |
In 3DMark11, the performance differences between the 580's are minimal. Unlike Vantage, the HD 5970 leads the way in both Extreme and Performance presets, by a wide margin. The following pages consist of our real world gaming tests, so let's find out how these overclocked GTX 580's perform in that environment.
