Sparkle GeForce GTS 450 (SXS4501024D5SNS)

GeForce
GTS 450
$137.99
Sparkle 

Add to Cart

Specs: GPU: GeForce GTS 450; Core clock: 789MHz; Memory: 1GB GDDR5 (940MHz); Memory

interface: 128-bit; 192 CUDA cores

Just one and two steps down, respectively,
from the GeForce GTX 460 and 470,
the GTS 450’s performance difference in
benchmark results between these models
and can be significant. For example, prior
CPU tests on the GTX 460 were showing
3DMark results around P15000, and our
Sparkle GTX 470 reached P18959. In
contrast, this GTS 450 scores P11162.
That said, the GTS 450 still has
plenty to offer. The core, shader, and
memory clocks are all higher on the
GTS 450 than, say, the GTX 470. From
productivity apps by day to HTPC
movie use by night, Sparkle’s card delivered
solid, stable performance across
all three output ports.
Plus, let’s point out the solid job that
Sparkle has done with Nvidia’s chip. The
GTS 450 may be the fastest single-slot
card we’ve ever benched, and it doesn’t
fall prey to the loud fan issues that can
accompany Nvidia cards under stress.
Sparkle’s GTS 450 sports two DVI and
one mini-HDMI port, plus it includes an
HDMI cable and VGA-to-DVI adapter.

Tack on the 1GB of GDDR5, and this
emerges as a compact way to get a lot of
graphics muscle at a reasonable price.

Benchmark Results

                                Sparkle GTS 450                     Sparkle GTX 470

Core clock               789MHz                                   607MHz

Memory clock (effective)

 3760MHz                                3348MHz

Price                        $137.99                                   $249.99

3DMark Vantage

Overall                     P11162                                    P18959

GPU                         8812                                        15303

Unigine Heaven 2.1 (no AA, 4XAF,1920x1080)

FPS                          21.6                                         41

Scores                    543                                          1034

Minimum                   4.1                                           19.9

Maximum                 48.6                                         84.8

Aliens vs. Predator  1,920 x 1,200

25                                            47.3

Test system specs: CPU: Intel Core i7-980X; Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7; RAM: 12GB
OCZ PC3-10666 Gold; Storage: Intel 80GB X-25M SSD; PSU: PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 850W;
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

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Nvidia Flagship Faceoff GeForce GTX 570s & 580s Open Fire (2)

Sparkle Calibre GTX580
Sparkle’s very proud of its take on Nvidia’s
GeForce GTX 580, and rightfully so. The
GeForce GTX580 Calibre is one of the most
massive graphics cards we’ve ever had our
hands on. The three-PWM-fan-equipped
Accelero Xtreme cooler strapped to the GTX
580 reference PCB is fully three slots thick,
and the copper heatpipe/aluminum fin
assembly extends another inch beyond the
PCB on the end and a quarter of an inch on
the top. Interestingly, Sparkle claims that
the cooler is capable of effectively cooling
up to 240 watts, but the reference
GTX 580 is a 244-watt graphics card.

Despite the discrepancy, we didn’t notice
any performance issues, and the card ran
plenty quiet for our tastes. If you plan to
SLI a pair of these, use flexible connectors
and a motherboard with widely separated
PCI-E slots.
Sparkle cranked the core and memory
clocks to 810MHz and 1,008MHz, respectively.
Bundled accessories include a
driver disc, 8-pin PCI-E power adapter,
DVI-to-VGA adapter, and HDMI cable.
As you can imagine, the GTX580 Calibre
outpaced the reference 580 by a decent
margin in all tests and was only bested by
the higher-clocked Zotac GTX 580 AMP!
card. With such an impressive cooler, we’d be
surprised if you couldn’t push the clocks even
further, which could help justify this card’s
equally impressive price.

Zotac GeForce GTX 580 AMP!
(ZT-50102-10P)
With GeForce GTX 580 AMP!, Zotac
argues that much can be accomplished
with even Nvidia’s reference PCB and the
stock cooler. And Zotac’s right: This card
may not look like much, but the company
managed to increase the core and memory
clocks more than Sparkle, to 815MHz and
1,025MHz, respectively. All other features,
save the fire-breathing dragon sticker,
mirror those of the reference design,
including the pair of DVI ports and mini
HDMI port on the backplane and the
6-pin and 8-pin PCI-E power connectors
on the top of the card.

Calibre GTX580
$479
Sparkle
Add To Cart

Extras include 6-pin and 8-pin PCI-E

power adapters, a mini HDMI-to-HDMI

adapter, and DVI-to-VGA adapter. The

580 AMP! also ships with Prince Of Persia:

The Forgotten Sands and the Zotac Boost

Premium software bundle, which includes

the Cooliris browser plug-in, XBMC, Kylo

browser for HTPCs, and CUDA-accelerated

demos of vReveal and Nero Vision Xtra.

In the benchmarks, Zotac’s card pushed

and shoved its way to the top of the heap,

thanks largely to superior core and memory

clocks. Although it’s priced significantly

higher than the stock card, Zotac’s impressive

overclock and bundled extras make it a

worthy option for gaming enthusiasts

GeForce GTX 580 AMP!
(ZT-50102-10P)
$549.99
Zotac
Add to Cart

Nvidia’s Enthusiast Lineup

Having gotten our hands on several

overclocked reference boards and even

a few overhauls from the PCB-up,

we can confidently assert that the

graphics cards based on the GF110

are a hardcore gamer’s delight. There’s

a wide price spectrum here, too, so

any serious gamer should be able to

find something that works with her

budget. The GTX 580 and 570 won’t

make you better at the games you play,

but with any of the above, you really

can’t lose.

System Specs: Processor: 3.33GHz Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition; Gigabyte X58-USB3; RAM: 6GB Patriot Sector 7;
Storage: 128GB Patriot Zephyr SSD; PSU: Antec TruePower Quattro 1200

Specs & Scores

                GeForce                  GeForce                                  GeForce                  GeForce                  GeForce                                                       

                GTX 570                  GTX 580                                  GTX570 Evga          GTX570 MSI            GTX 570 Palit                                                                          

Price        $399                        $499                                       $369.99                   $375                        $369.99

Core Clock

 732MHz                 772MHz                                   797MHz                   786MHz                   800MHz

Memory Clock

950MHz                   1,002MHz                                975MHz                   1,050MHz                1,000MHz

Memory Interface

320-bit                     384-bit                                     320-bit                     320-bit                    320-bit 

Memory(GDDR5)

 1,280MB                  1,536MB                                  1,280MB                  1,280MB                  1,280MB                                                                                                                                                                 

3DMark 11 Extreme*

3DMark Overall

X1693                      X1962                                      X1822                      X1819                      X1829

Graphics Score

                1530                        1773                                        1650                        1646                        1656

Physics Score

8398                        8394                                        8364                        8412                       8425

Combined Score

1794                        2154                                        1927                        1939                        1942

Graphics Test 1

7.84                         8.98                                        8.46                         8.44                         8.49

Graphics Test 2

7.95                         9.2                                           8.59                         8.56                         8.63

Graphics Test 3

7.52                         8.8                                          8.06                         8.13                         8.07

Graphics Test 4                     

4.66                         5.41                                         5.03                         4.99                         5.05

Physics Test

 26.66                      26.65                                       26.55                       26.71                       26.75

Combined Test

8.35                         10.02                                       8.97                         9.02                         9.03

Unigine Heaven

Frames Per Second

30                            35.2                                         32.2                         32.3                         32.4

Score

757                          887                                          811                          813                          817





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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.

GeForce GTX 570
Sonic Platinum
$349.99
Palit
Add to Cart

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