Zotac GeForce GTX 580 1536MB Video Card Review

System Overview & Testing Procedures
We will be installing the Sparkle GTS 450 into our new test system.  This test system is comprised of an Intel Core i7 965 Extreme, Gigabyte X58A-UD5 motherboard, 6GB of memory, 750GB SATA drive, Blu-ray drive, and Zalman ZM1000-HP 1000W power supply, all inside the BitFenix Colossus case.

Zotac GeForce GTX 580 1536MB Video Card Zotac GeForce GTX 580 1536MB Video Card

We will be comparing the Zotac GeForce GTX 580 to some of the latest video cards we have tested, they include: Sparkle Calibre X480 GeForce GTX 480, Sapphire Radeon HD 6850, HIS Radeon HD 5850, Gigabyte GTS 450 video card and the Sparkle GeForce GTS 450 video card.  Keep in mind these other cards range from low-end to high end.  They are just here for reference.

Opening up GPU-Z we can see all the information on the Zotac GeForce GTX 580.  This is a reference card so there is not that much to talk about here.

info

Before we get into the real testing let’s see what the temperatures look like on this card.  Temperatures were recorded with GPU-Z.  Idle and load states were taken an hour apart from each other.

temps

As you can see this card does run quite hot!

We will be running 2 different types of tests on the card.  The first are benchmarking programs, most of which you should be familiar with.  The second part of the testing is actual game testing.  The programs and games we are using are listed below as well as links where you can download or purchase them.

Video Tests
3DMark Vantage (download)
Heaven Demo 2.1 (download)
Stone Giant Demo (download)

Game Tests
Crysis Warehead (Buy)
Alien vs. Predator (Buy)
Resident Evil 5 (Buy)
DiRT 2 (Buy)

Now on to the testing!

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