Nvidia Flagship Faceoff GeForce GTX 570s & 580s Open Fire (1)

We’ve raved about the GF110 that

resides beneath the vapor-cooled

copper and aluminum block of both the

GeForce GTX 580 and GTX 570; it’s all

the best parts of Nvidia’s Fermi (GF100),

with the excess heat (largely) excised and

noise all but completely silenced.

Other GF110 tweaks include the

capability to filter double the FP16 pixels

per clock compared to the GF100, and

it has a new Z-culling/rejection engine

for improved rendering in games. The

transistors that compose the highly complicated

GTX 580 and 570 GPUs are

also significantly less leaky than those of

the GF100. Like Nvidia’s latest DX11

graphics cards, these two support Nvidia

Surround multidisplay technology and

3D Vision (SLI required for both), as

well as PhysX, SLI, and CUDA-based

GPGPU computing.

Fermi 2.0 Figures

The GF110 in Nvidia’s reference GeForce

GTX 580 features a full complement of 16

SMs enabled, which gives it 512 CUDA

cores, 64 texture units, and 48 ROPs.

The GeForce GTX 570 utilizes the same

GF110, but with 15 active SMs, for 480

CUDA cores, 60 texture units, and 40

ROPs. Memory bandwidth on the GTX

580 is 192.4GBps, compared to the GTX


GeForce GTX 570 Superclocked $359.99 Evga	Customer Review Add to Cart

570’s 152GBps. The former owes its

higher spec to the 384-bit bus and faster

1,536MB GDDR5 frame buffer, clocked

at 1,002MHz. The GTX 570’s 1,280MB

frame buffer runs on a 320-bit bus and is

clocked at 950MHz. The reference GTX

580 and 570 feature core clocks of 772MHz

and 732MHz, respectively, but as you’ll see,

there’s still room for improvement.

The GTX 580 is currently the fastest

single-GPU graphics card you can buy, and,

despite a slightly slower memory subsystem,

the GTX 570 performs right on par

with GTX 480 but costs significantly less.

At press time, there weren’t a whole lot of

nonreference GTX 580s and 570s available,

but the few we could get our hands on

performed admirably. Read on to see if any

of these 800-pound graphics gorillas tackle

your fancy.

How We Tested

Our testing platform consists of a

3.33GHz Intel Core i7-980X Extreme

Edition, Gigabyte X58-USB3, 6GB Patriot

Sector 7 memory, a 128GB Patriot Zephyr

SSD, and an Antec TruePower Quattro

1200 PSU. The system runs Windows 7

64-bit. We rated the cards’ raw tessellation

capabilities using Unigine Heaven;

synthetic gaming prowess using 3DMark

11’s Extreme setting; and real-world
DirectX 9/10.1/11 gaming capabilities
using Left 4 Dead 2, Just Cause 2, and
Aliens vs. Predator. We used the latest
Nvidia drivers available at the time of this
writing, ForceWare version 263.09.
Evga GeForce
GTX 570 Superclocked
Evga’s GeForce GTX 570 Superclocked
doesn’t look like much of a
contender at first glance, and like Zotac’s
GTX 580 AMP!, its PCB layout and
cooler are based on Nvidia’s reference
design. That doesn’t hold it back,
however; the stock GTX 570 is cool,
quiet, and a solid performer.
Evga did a little tweaking when it
comes to the core and memory clocks,
boosting them to 797MHz and 975MHz,
respectively. As with the stock models,
the backplane features dual DVI ports
and a mini HDMI port. A pair of SLI
connectors and two 6-pin PCI-E power
connectors can be found on the top
edge of the card. Evga bundles the GTX
570 Superclocked with a driver disc,
Evga Precision overclocking software, a
mini-HDMI-to-HDMI adapter, DVIto-
VGA adapter, and two 6-pin PCI-E
power adapters. With this card, you also
get Evga’s 24/7 technical support and a
limited lifetime warranty.
In the benchmarks, Evga’s 65MHz core
bump is enough to show considerable
gains on the reference card and also
outpace the lower-clocked GTX 570 from
MSI. Selling for considerably less than the
initial MSRP, Evga’s Superclocked 570 is a
solid buy for gaming enthusiasts.
MSI N570GTX Twin Frozr II
MSI was able to ship us its Twin Frozr
II version of the GTX 570, which uses, as
far as we can tell, Nvidia’s reference PCB,
but MSI saddled it with an impressive
nickel-plated copper and aluminum
heatsink bristling with five heatpipes
and covered with an attractive plate of
gunmetal gray aluminum. There are two
80mm fans and a low-profile heatsink
for the memory and other components.
MSI used all solid capacitors for this card.
According to MSI, the advanced cooler
is responsible for a 20 degrees Celsius
and 8.4 dB noise reduction, compared
to the reference GTX 570. From where
we’re sitting, this card runs as quiet as
any enthusiast card we’ve tested. MSI also
tuned the core and memory clocks to
786MHz and 1,050MHz, respectively.
Bundled accessories include a driver
disc, mini HDMI adapter, DVI-to-VGA
adapter, and dual PCI-E power adapters.
The included MSI Afterburner software
lets you boost the core and memory
clocks even further, and the three-year
warranty is a nice bonus.
Although the higher-overclocked
GTX 570s from Evga and Palit slightly
outperformed MSI’s card in 3DMark 11,
they both fell to the N570GTX Twin Frozr
II in Aliens vs. Predator, at both resolutions.
With its beefy cooler and overclocking
software, MSI’s GTX 570 gives you the
tools to crush the competition.
Palit GeForce GTX 570
Sonic Platinum
We’ve tested a number of Sonic Platinum
cards from Palit, and as a result, we had
high expectations for the GeForce GTX 570
Sonic Platinum; Palit didn’t disappoint. Of
all the cards in this roundup, Palit’s was the
only one with a redesigned PCB. Although
a PCB redesign can occasionally signal cost
cutting, Palit appears to have been at least
partially motivated by the desire to pump
more power to the GF110 under the hood;
there are 6-pin and 8-pin PCI-E power
connectors on the top edge of the card, like
those found on the GTX 580.
The cooler on the GTX 570 Sonic
Platinum is very similar to MSI’s, but there’s
a less revealing plastic shroud on the card.
We also love that Palit saw fit to include

N570GTX Twin Frozr II
$349
MSI
Add to Cart

DisplayPort and full-sized HDMI ports.
Palit pushed the core clock higher than both
Evga and MSI—to 800MHz. The memory
clock also saw a bump to 1,000MHz. Palit
threw in a driver disc, DVI-to-VGA adapter,
and a PCI-E power adapter.
In the benchmarks, Palit topped the rest
of the GTX 570s in our suite of synthetic
benchmarks, including 3DMark 11 and
Unigine Heaven. Real-world results were
very close, but Palit’s card only broke from
the pack in Just Cause 2 at 2,560 x 1,600.
Although priced similarly to Evga’s offering,
we think overclockers will get more bang for
their buck with this card.