Four Overclocked GeForce GTX 580 Cards, Rounded Up

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Today we put four factory-overclocked GeForce GTX 580 cards to the test: Gigabyte’s GeForce GTX 580 Super Overclock, MSI’s N580GTX Twin Frozr II/OC, Calibre’s X580 Captain, and Zotac’s GeForce GTX 580 AMP²! Edition. Which one is worth its premium price?

Test System And Benchmarks

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Test Hardware
Processor Intel Core i5-2500K (Sandy Bridge)Overclocked to 4 GHz, 6 MB L3 Cache, power-saving settings enabled, Turbo Boost disabled.
Motherboard MSI P67A-GD65, Intel P67 Chipset
Memory OCZ DDR3-2000, 2 x 2 GB, at 1338 MT/s, CL 9-9-9-20-1T
Hard Drive Western Digital Caviar Black 750 GB, 7200 RPM, 32 MB Cache, SATA 3Gb/s
Graphics Cards Gigabyte GV-N580SO-15I Super Overclock855/1025 MHz core/memory, 1536 MB RAMMSI N580GTX Twin Frozr II/OC800/1024 MHz core/memory, 1536 MB RAM(also run underclocked to 772/1002 MHz core/memory to represent reference performance)Calibre X580 Captain822/1008 MHz core/memory, 1536 MB RAMZotac GeForce GTX 580 AMP²! Edition815/1025 MHz core/memory, 3072 MB RAM
Power Supply ePower EP-1200E10-T2 1200 W, ATX12V, EPS12V
CPU Cooler Cooler Master Hyper TX 2
System Software And Drivers
Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate x64
DirectX DirectX 11
Graphics Driver GeForce: 275.5 BETA
Don Woligroski
Contributor

Don Woligroski was a former senior hardware editor for Tom's Hardware. He has covered a wide range of PC hardware topics, including CPUs, GPUs, system building, and emerging technologies.

31 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Hupiscratch
    Great article. Some ASUS boards would be nice on a next round up. And also that MARS card, with two GTX 580 in one board.
    Reply
  • mayankleoboy1
    +1 to include a ASUS DCII card.
    reason for MSI's faster performance : faster memory?
    Reply
  • whysobluepandabear
    The Zotac AMP card looks like it was designed with 1939 Germany in mind.



    Reply
  • asmodyus
    What I don't understand is why you did not use the MSI lighting Extreme with an 832 core clock it would be a better contender in your shoot out here than the twin razor since your using the Zotac 3GB version. Does not really make since when you think of overclocked GTX 580 to leave that card out.
    Reply
  • hardcore_gamer
    Two GTX570s cost only $580. It is a way better option than an overclocked GTX580 imo.
    Reply
  • more memory is very handy for gpu based renderer like Mentalray's iray of Chaos group vray RT and it may be better chose over many nvidia quadro card.
    Reply
  • kikireeki
    Conclusion: A high-end overclocked gpu is a waste of money.
    Reply
  • verbalizer
    +2 for the ASUS DC cards, they should have had one of those models in the line-up.
    though there is a triple slot 580 from ASUS that should also be included.
    with all the talk on how the 590 is the 'flagship' card or the 'meat and potatoes',
    it's the 580 that really brings home the bacon..
    Reply
  • christop
    Nice review..
    Reply
  • TyphX
    what do they do with the sample cards after this?
    Reply