NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 580: Fermi Refined
by Ryan Smith on November 9, 2010 9:00 AM ESTCrysis: Warhead
Kicking things off as always is Crysis: Warhead, still one of the toughest game in our benchmark suite. Even 2 years since the release of the original Crysis, “but can it run Crysis?” is still an important question, and the answer continues to be “no.” One of these years we’ll actually be able to run it with full Enthusiast settings…
Right off the bat we see the GTX 580 do well, which as the successor to what was already the fastest single-GPU card on the market is nothing less than we expect. At 2560 it’s around 16% faster than the GTX 480, and at 1920 that drops to 12%. Bear in mind that the theoretical performance improvement for clock + shader is 17%, so in reality it would be nearly impossible get that close without the architectural improvements also playing a role.
Meanwhile AMD’s double-GPU double-trouble lineup of the 5970 and 6870CF both outscore the GTX 580 by around 12% and 27% respectively. It shouldn’t come as a shock that they’re going to win most tests – ultimately they’re priced much more competitively than the GTX 580, making them price-practical alternatives to the GTX 580.
And speaking of competition the GTX 470 SLI is in much the same boat, handily surpassing the GTX 580. This will come full circle however when we look at power consumption.
Meanwhile looking at minimum framerates we have a different story. AMD’s memory management in CrossFire mode has long been an issue with Crysis at 2560, and it continues to show here with a minimum framerate that simply craters. At 2560 there’s a world of difference between NVIDIA and AMD here, and it’s all in NVIDIA’s favor. 1920 however roughly mirrors our earlier averages, with the 580 taking a decent lead over the GTX 480, but falling to multi-GPU cards.
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Pantsu - Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - link
A good article, and a good conclusion overall. Much better that the fiasko that was the 6800-article.I do lament the benchmarking method AT uses though. Benchmarks like the Crysis Warhead one are not really representative of real world performance, but tend to be a bit too "optimized". They do not reflect real world performance very well, and even skew the results between cards.
carage - Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - link
No DOLBY/DTS HD bitstream = epic fail as far as HTPC usage is concerned.Thank you nVidia for failing again this round.
Sihastru - Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - link
Yes, you must be one of the only two persons in the world that was considering the most powerfull GPU on the planet for a HTPC setup.carage - Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - link
And somehow you still buy into the argument that mid-end offerings at half the price has more features than the top of the line card?nVidia has been doing this since 6800 era...
QuagmireLXIX - Sunday, November 14, 2010 - link
And I am the other :) What some people don't see is that someone may only want 1 desktop to do everything well.buildingblock - Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - link
I'm impressed that my local hardware dealer here in the UK has no less than 5 GTX 580s in stock today. It also includes, yes in stock, the first overclocked 580 the Palit Sonic which has a 835 Mhz CPU up from 772, 4200 memory up from 4008, and 1670 shaders up from 1544. All this for about 5% more than the price of the standard Palit GTX 580.buildingblock - Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - link
I meant 5 different makes of GTX 580 of course.mapesdhs - Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - link
Are you near Bolton by any chance? ;D
If not, which company?
Btw, shop around, the Sonic is 30 cheaper elsewhere.
Ian.
buildingblock - Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - link
I was looking at a standard Palit GTX 580 for £380, and the Sonic version for £398. These were about the best prices I could find today.nitrousoxide - Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - link
But how far it can go depends on its counterpart, the HD6970.