Are GTX 580s still any good?

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Jessegator

Jessegator

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Jan 19, 2014
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Like the title says, is a GTX 580 still a good GPU for 1080p gaming?
My R7 260X died on me recently, so I need a new GPU.
Despite all the power it uses, (apparently ~250W at full load) would a GTX 580 be a good upgrade from an R7 260X? I see that on eBay they sell for ~$100, and I don't have a big budget for a new card.
I mainly play PlanetSide 2, Battlefield 3/4, and Minecraft.
Also, will the 1.5 GB VRAM be enough for 1080p? I'm not going to be playing Skyrim with 30+ graphics mods, and I'm not gonna be using 4x MSAA or anything insane.
 
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17seconds
A GTX 580 is going to be just a few percent behind a 7950/270x and a few percent above a GTX 660. For $100, that's a great deal. They still stand the test of time for their compute abilities and their overclocking prowess.

GTX 580's, and all Fermi's, still featured "hot clocks", shader/CUDA cores that operate at 2x the core clock speed. That meant that overclocking the core +100 MHz would give you +200 MHz on the shaders, for extra OC scaling compared to recent generation cards from either company. Many would also appreciate the fact that you still had "old school" overclocking available and not Turbo Boost with all its artificial limitations.

In addition to the overclocking, the GTX 580 has excellent FP64 abilities (again hot...
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Swordkd

Swordkd

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Oct 3, 2012
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I'd hold out for a radeon 270 or 270x off ebay. I lucked out needing two video cards and I bought two Xfx 270x's for 237, free shipping. That's cheaper than I could buy a 270 new after the 30 dollar MiR. I'd guess that you could prolly find a 7870ghz edition for 100, or 7850 at least and that would be equivalent if not better than the 260x.
 
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ingtar33

ingtar33

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Dec 17, 2012
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yeah... there are some crazy deals on ebay. got my r9-280x for 150.00... freakin' brand new too (had i known it would be brand new, i would have bought two)... they had it marked used because the shrink wrap was removed from the box. but it was flippin' brand new and untouched by human hands.

so yeah... there are some killer deals if you're willing to give it some time on ebay.
 
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I

i7Baby

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Jul 25, 2012
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A GTX 580 is about the same performance wise as a GTX760. New - the gtx760's are a lot cheaper (about $225US)

So it'd be quite a step up from a R7 260x. You might need a bigger power supply too. And you need to check if it'll fit in your case.

If so and you can get one for under $200 then its worth at least thinking about.
 
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Jessegator

Jessegator

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Jan 19, 2014
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Thanks for all the replies, but I'm leaning more towards NVIDIA cards since I have had horrible experiences with AMD cards. In the last four years I have had three AMD video cards (all by different manufacturers) die on me within four to five months of owning them.
Like I've said before, I am on a tight budget for a new GPU, and GTX 580s are selling for $90 to $100 on eBay.
Bottom line is: Is it worth the $100 to buy an old GTX 580?
 
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Jessegator

Jessegator

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It's not just one person that is selling them for that price. I have seen a couple GTX 580s go for $90 - $100 last week.
 
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ingtar33

ingtar33

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Dec 17, 2012
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well... the market is screwed up if that's what they're going for. sorta like used japanese cars... only without the ability to actually survive any longer.

Listen... whatever percieved quality difference there is between amd and nvidia graphics cards, real or imagined, isn't big enough to justify a 4 year old gpu going for $100 that's just fanboy inflated market value at that point.

Nvidia cards burn out the same as amd cards... they aren't on magic silicon that can take long term stress and heat better. Furthermore unlike the 6xx and 7xx series gpus, the 4xx and 5xx series nvidia cards are all space heaters. They ran hot and burnt out quickly.

So no... i wouldn't pay $100 for a 4 year old 580... i'm not even sure i'd pay 50 for one... unless i was willing to accept the fact the card might come to me broken or at least half functional. I'd certainly not spend the cash on one expecting it to last more then 6 months.

Remember what you're seeing when you see a won auction on EBAY... you're seeing the price that someone was willing to pay the ABSOLUTE MAX for it. Basically you're seeing the absolute maximum market value for the item. and in this case i think the market value for a 4 year old 580 is too high.
 
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Rationale

Rationale

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Mar 21, 2014
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Most of the time a GTX 760 actually tests significantly ahead of a GTX 580. :3
Fermi was not Nvidia's strong point. ._.
 
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Swordkd

Swordkd

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I've myself had good experience with Amd cards. I bought the literal first Radeon and loved it. I think the reference designs from nVidia are better than Amd though, however, I wouldn't buy a reference cooler design for a Radeon. If you are stuck on nVidia though, I'd watch out for a good 660 or so at least.
 
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B

bystander

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What the heck does age have to do with it? You buy the card based on it's abilities, not how old it is and a 580 is a capable card. The only issue is the lack of VRAM. At 1.5Gb, that can be an issue, unless you find a 3Gb version. Some games will require you to reduce some settings as a result of a lack of VRAM.
 
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17seconds

17seconds

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Jul 27, 2010
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A GTX 580 is going to be just a few percent behind a 7950/270x and a few percent above a GTX 660. For $100, that's a great deal. They still stand the test of time for their compute abilities and their overclocking prowess.

GTX 580's, and all Fermi's, still featured "hot clocks", shader/CUDA cores that operate at 2x the core clock speed. That meant that overclocking the core +100 MHz would give you +200 MHz on the shaders, for extra OC scaling compared to recent generation cards from either company. Many would also appreciate the fact that you still had "old school" overclocking available and not Turbo Boost with all its artificial limitations.

In addition to the overclocking, the GTX 580 has excellent FP64 abilities (again hot clocks are an advantage) and can do everything the Kepler generation can in terms of: PhysX, Adaptive VSync, FXAA, HBAO+, etc. The only option it will lack relative to Kepler is TXAA antialiasing. The GTX 580 is still remarkably a beast of a card and a classic that will run straight through most games you throw at it.

perfrel_1920.gif
 
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Solution
ingtar33

ingtar33

Glorious
Dec 17, 2012
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age is huge...
GPU DEATH = RUN TIME * AVERAGE TEMP

the higher Average temp the shorter the time it will live; and fermi ran rather hot; hot enough most 4xx series cards died within 18months... they backed the temps down a bit with a better cooler in the 5xx series but it was still a hot card. So if you figure they put a warranty on a new gpu of 3 years... we already know that gpu is no longer covered by the manufacturer's warranty. It's lived past the time the manufacturer is willing to guarentee. Even if it was gently used, there is no guarenty that card will last much longer. and if it was overclocked and abused for 4 years, it's highly likely that card won't survive 6 months

THATS why age matters.

SO to buy a card purely on "capability" is sorta silly. You wouldn't pay $150,000 for a 1988 Ferrari Testarossa with 1 million miles on it. who cares if the car can go 0-60 in under 5 seconds; who cars if it will hit 200mph on the highway. it won't make it down to the convienent store with that much abuse on it.

Same for gpus... only we don't have an odometer on a gpu... we can only go by what we know. it's 4 years old, and its a hot running card. we don't know what they did with it... we don't know if the person kept it running 24/7 with folding@home or they locked it in a closet untouched... we simply don't know. so we make a guess... and my guess is 4yo gpu is on it's last legs regardless how the user used it. throw in the fact its a space heater and i wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole.
 
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B

bystander

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I'd take that 1980's Ferrari over a new Toyota any day, regardless of miles. The thing is, cards rarely die. The only thing that tends to wear to the point of death, is the fan and TMI. You can replace both. The TMI obviously being super cheap and easy. If the card is twice as fast, and much cheaper. I'll take the used card, assuming it is in working order.

The X factor is the Vram limitation.
 
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