ASUS ENGTX580
Category : NVIDIA
Published by Marc Voser on 16.12.10
With the ENGTX580, ASUS sends its first GTX580 based card into the ring to fight for the performance crown. The starting position should definitely be a good one and were therefore very curious about the results which will be achieved in our tests. Furthermore ASUS also provides a software which allows adjustems of the GPU voltage, which is very useful for overclocking. We'd like to thank ASUS for providing us with the testsample.
It's been a bit more than eight months from now that NVIDIA introduced the GTX480. Now they're already presenting their GTX580 cards which are based on the new Fermi graphics processing unit which is also called GF110. This huge monolithic core is being manufactured at TSMC using a 40 nanometer process. With the ENGTX580 ASUS doesn't only promise more performance and a lower power consumption, they also claim that the card is singnificantly more silent than its predecessor. Furthermore the clockrates for the ENGTX580 is 772 MHz for the GPU and 1'002 MHz for the 1'536 MByte of GDDR5 memory.
On the following pages we will show you the strenghts and weaknesses of the ASUS ENGTX580.
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Technical data / specifications[Fiche Technique / Spécifications[/fr]
The ASUS ENGTX580 has been built according to NVIDIAs reference design which features the new Vapoer Chamber Cooler which keeps card significantly cooler than its predecessor. Althoug they claim that the power consumption has been lowered the card can still consume up to 244 Watt of power. Compared to the GF100 the GF110 core is a is more of an evolution than a revolution. Now all the 512 CUDA-cores are activated, there are 64 texture units as well as 16 polymorph engines. All these features together provide more computing power to the card. Furthermore NVIDIA also made changes on the FP16 filtering, the Z-buffering and also the 64 KB-L1-Cache has been optimized in order to enhance shader performance. What is also new is an internal load monitoring which can will cut the performance in half as soon as a certain threshold is being reached. When we were overclocking the card as high as possible we noticed this kind of hardware thermal throttling during the execution of 3DMark 11.| GTX 580 | GTX 480 | ASUS EAH6850 | ASUS EAH5870 | |
| Chip | GF110 | GF100 | RV940 | RV870 |
| Process | 40 nm | 40 nm | 40 nm | 40 nm |
| Transistors | 3.0billion | 3.2 billion | 1.7 billion | 2.15 billion |
| GPU clock | 772 MHz | 700 MHz | 790 MHz | 850 MHz |
| Shader clock | 1'544 MHz | 1'401 MHz | 790 MHz | 850 MHz |
| Memory | 1'536 MB GDDR5 | 1'536 MB GDDR5 | 1'024 MB GDDR5 | 1'024 MB GDDR5 |
| Memory clock | 1'002 MHz | 924 MHz | 1'000 MHz | 1'200 MHz |
| Memory interface | 384 Bit | 384 Bit | 256 Bit | 256 Bit |
| Memory bandwidth | 192'400 MB/s | 177'408 MB/s | 128'000 MB/s | 153'600 MB/s |
| TMUs | 64 | 60 | 48 | 80 |
| TAUs | 64 | 60 | 48 | 80 |
| Shader Cores | 512 (1D) | 480 (1D) | 192 (5D) | 320 (5D) |
| ROPs | 48 ROP | 48 ROP | 32 ROP | 32 ROP |
| Shader model | SM 5 | SM 5 | SM 5 | SM 5 |
| Maximum board power | 244 Watt | 250 Watt | 127 Watt | 188 Watt |
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Preview / Delivery
For the ENGTX580 ASUS uses their standard box. Everything has its specific place an in the delivery you find an installation CD, a manual, a driver CD, an HDMI-to-DVI-adaptor and a 6 pin molex plug.
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Overclocking
For our overclocking test we used the delivered software ASUS Smartdoctor. This tool allows you to adjust the core voltage and clock frequencies as well as the memory clock. The standard voltage regarding the GPU is 1.062 Volt. Using Smartdoctor you can rise the value all the way up to 1.216 Volt. Therefore we found the optimal voltage at 1.177 Volt. At this point it was possible for us to drive the GPU at 966 MHz and the memory at 1'166 MHz.
Futuremark Overclocking
| 3DMark 11 Total | Score | Percent |
| ASUS ENGTX 580 (GPU 966MHz / MEM 1166MHz) | 6'212 | 115.40 % |
| ASUS ENGTX 580 | 5'383 | 100.00 % |
| more is better | ||
| 3DMark 11 GPU | Score | Percent |
| ASUS ENGTX 580 (GPU 966MHz / MEM 1166MHz) | 6'679 | 117.24 % |
| ASUS ENGTX 580 | 5'697 | 100.00 % |
| more is better | ||
| 3DMark Vantage | Score | Percent |
| ASUS ENGTX 580 (936MHz / MEM 1140MHz) | 29'090 | 190.11 % |
| ASUS ENGTX 580 | 26'788 | 173.50 % |
| ASUS EAH6850 DirectCU OC (GPU 1000MHz / MEM 1177MHz) | 15'439 | 100.90% |
| ASUS EAH6850 DirectCU | 15'301 | 100.00 % |
| more is better | ||
| 3DMark Vantage GPU | Score | Percent |
| ASUS ENGTX 580 (936MHz / MEM 1140MHz) | 25'188 | 169.43 % |
| ASUS ENGTX 580 | 23'628 | 158.93 % |
| ASUS EAH6850 DirectCU OC (GPU 790MHz / MEM 1000MHz) | 16'672 | 112.14% |
| ASUS EAH6850 DirectCU | 14'866 | 100.00 % |
| more is better | ||
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Test conditions
Hardware
| OS and Drivers |
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| Mainboard |
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| CPUs |
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| Memory |
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| Graphic Cards |
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| HDD |
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| PSU |
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Software
Futuremark
- 3DMark 11
- Standard
- 3DMark Vantage
- Performance
Furmark
| High | |
| Benchmarking | yes |
| Fullscreen | yes |
| Resolution | 1920 x 1080 |
| MSAA | 8x |
| Time based (ms) | 60'000 |
World in Conflict
| High | |
| Resolution | 1920 x 1080 |
| Graphic Detail | very high |
| Antialiasing | 8x |
| Anisotropic Texture Filtering | 16x |
Resident Evil 5 DX10
| High | |
| Resolution | 1920 x 1080 |
| Anzeigen-Modus | Vollbild |
| Vertikalfrequenz | 60 Hz |
| Vertikal Sync | Nein |
| Bildwiederholrate | Variabel |
| Antialiasing | 8x |
| Anisotropic Texture Filtering | 16x |
| Motion Blur | Ja |
| Schatten Details | Hoch |
| Textur Details | Hoch |
| Gesamtqualität | Hoch |
Crysis DX10
| High | |
| Resolution | 1920 x 1080 |
| Quality Settings | very high |
| Antialiasing | 16xQ |
| Demo Loops | 3 |
| Time of day | 9 |
| Timedemo | benchmark_gpu |
| 64 bit | yes |
| DX10 | yes |
Call of Juarez
| High | |
| Resolution | 1920 x 1080 |
| Fullscreen | yes |
| Details | High |
| Shadowmap size | 2048x2048 |
| Shadows quality | High |
| Antialiasing | 4x SSAA |
| Audio | disabled |
Far Cry 2 DX10
| High | |
| Resolution | 1920 x 1080 |
| Antialiasing | 8x |
| Direct3D | 10 |
| Fire | very high |
| Physics | very high |
| Real Trees | very high |
| Overall Quality | custom |
| Vegetation | very high |
| Shading | ultra high |
| Terrain | ultra high |
| Geometry | ultra high |
| Post FX | high |
| Texture | ultra high |
| Ambient | high |
| HDR | yes |
| Shadow | ultra high |
| Bloom | yes |
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3DMark 11
3DMark 11 is Futuremarks latest benchmark for the entire graphical subsystem. The benchmark uses DirectX 11 and it supports all recent features which can possibly generate high load on a GPU. Therefore you find tessellation, compute shader calculations, divers lighting effects and different depth of filed animations. Following we publish values regarding the performance preset of 3DMark 11.
| 3DMark11 Total | Score | Percent |
| ASUS ENGTX 580 | 5'383 | 143.39 % |
| ASUS ENGTX470 | 3'713 | 103.80 % |
| Gigabyte GTX460 | 3'754 | 100.00 % |
| more is better | ||
| 3DMark06 GPU HDR/SM 3.0 Score | Score | Percent |
| ASUS ENGTX 580 | 5'697 | 159.93 % |
| ASUS ENGTX470 | 3'634 | 108.97 % |
| Gigabyte GTX460 | 3'562 | 106.81 % |
| ASUS EAH6850 | 3'335 | 100.00 % |
| more is better | ||
3DMark Vantage
3DMark Vantage is able to squeeze nearly everything out of a recent system. Therefore the feature liste is also pretty long: DirectX10, FP16-HDR, motion blur, parallax occlusion mapping, GPU-physics simulation and different shader effects are being used to even make recent high-end systems struggle.| 3DMark Vantage | Score | Percent |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 22'496 | 161.86 % |
| ASUS ENGTX 580 | 21'171 | 152.42 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 285 SLI | 19'441 | 139.88 % |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 18'895 | 135.95 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 18'244 | 131.27 % |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 17'732 | 127.58 % |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 16'730 | 120.37 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 16'056 | 115.52 % |
| ASUS EAH6850 DirectCU | 15'301 | 110.09 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 13'898 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 13'047 | 93.87 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 12'323 | 88.09 % |
| more is better | ||
| 3DMark Vantage GPU | Score | Percent |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 25'544 | 194.44 % |
| ASUS ENGTX 580 | 23'628 | 179.85 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 285 SLI | 20'715 | 157.68 % |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 19'789 | 150.63 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 18'745 | 142.68 % |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 18'095 | 137.74 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 15'858 | 120.71 % |
| ASUS EAH6850 DirectCU | 14'866 | 113.16 % |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 13'753 | 104.68 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 13'137 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 12'156 | 92.53 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 11'337 | 86.29 % |
| more is better | ||
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Furmark
| Furmark, 1920 x 1080, MSAA 8X | Average | Percent |
| ASUS ENGTX 580 | 76.00 fps | 235.87 % |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 68.00 fps | 211.04 % |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 54.21 fps | 166.47 % |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 49.00 fps | 152.07 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 44.00 fps | 135.13 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 42.00 fps | 128.99 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 34.00 fps | 105.52 % |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 33.00 fps | 100.60 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 32.80 fps | 100.07 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 32.22 fps | 100.00 % |
| ASUS EAH6850 DirectCU | 32.00 fps | 99.31 % |
| more is better | ||
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World in Conflict
| World in Conflict, 1920 x 1080, high details, 8xAA 16xAF | Average | Percent |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 106 fps | 179.66 % |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 77 fps | 130.50 % |
| ASUS ENGTX 580 | 77 fps | 130.50 % |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 76 fps | 128.80 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 72 fps | 122.03 % |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 69 fps | 116.94 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 285 SLI | 69 fps | 116.94 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 59 fps | 100.00 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 59 fps | 100.00 % |
| ASUS EAH6850 DirectCU | 57 fps | 96.61 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 56 fps | 94.91 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 50 fps | 84.74 % |
| more is better | ||
Resident Evil 5
Resident Evil uses nearly every modern rendering technology: HDR, Hemisphere Lighting, Soft Shadows, Soft Particles, Field- und Motion-Blur oder auch Alpha to Coverage and static Ambient Occlusion. Furthermore Resident Evil 5 has been optimized for multicore architectures and already comes DirectX11 ready. By using the DirectX9 as well as the DirectX10 benchmark we can again show you CPU-scaling with low resolutions and the compared to the CPU overproportional influence of the graphics card at high resolutions.| Resident Evil 5, 1920 x 1080, high details, 8xAA 16xAF | Average | Percent |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 123.20 fps | 128.60 % |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 119.50 fps | 124.73 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 285 SLI | 108.60 fps | 113.36 % |
| ASUS ENGTX 580 | 107.30 fps | 112.00 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 105.00 fps | 109.60 % |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 104.30 fps | 108.87 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 97.20 fps | 101.46 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 95.80 fps | 100.00 % |
| ASUS EAH6850 DirectCU | 93.30 fps | 97.39 % |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 90.30 fps | 94.25 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 75.00 fps | 78.28 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 62.40 fps | 65.13 % |
| more is better | ||
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Call of Juarez
| Call of Juarez, 1920 x 1080, high details, 4xSSAA | Average | Percent |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 72.80 fps | 182.91 % |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 53.60 fps | 134.67 % |
| ASUS ENGTX 580 | 52.40 fps | 131.65 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 43.20 fps | 108.54 % |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 42.50 fps | 106.78 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 41.90 fps | 105.27 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 39.80 fps | 100.00 % |
| ASUS EAH6850 DirectCU | 32.10 fps | 80.65 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 285 SLI | 38.80 fps | 97.48 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 34.60 fps | 86.93 % |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 34.20 fps | 85.92 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 28.50 fps | 71.60 % |
| more is better | ||
Far Cry 2
| Far Cry 2, 1920 x 1080, high details, 8xAA | Average | Percent |
| ASUS ENGTX 580 | 98.36 fps | 185.86 % |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 91.87 fps | 173.60 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 285 SLI | 84.49 fps | 159.65 % |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 80.35 fps | 153.48 % |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 64.51 fps | 121.90 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 59.21 fps | 111.88 % |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 55.66 fps | 105.17 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 54.99 fps | 103.91 % |
| ASUS EAH6850 DirectCU | 54.14 fps | 102.30 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 52.92 fps | 100.00 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 49.69 fps | 93.89 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 42.31 fps | 79.95 % |
| more is better | ||
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Conclusion
| General | + | - | |
| The GTX580 definitely is the performnce king regarding the Single-GPU cards. In some benchmarks the card can even compete with a dual gpu Radeon HD 5970 which impressively underlines this cards presence. What also leaves a very positive impression is the new vapor chamber cooler which is able to keep the card on adequate coolers much more silently then you might know it from the GTX480. In 2D mode the card can even be used in a silent system and under load the fan is well present but not annoyingly loud. |
- 2D-Very silent
- Performance |
||
| Delivery | + | - | |
| The box the ASUS ENGTX580 comes with includes all you need to setup the card properly. It doesn't matter if you're looking for an adaptor or a driver CD you find everything you need. If we could wish we'd like to see a game in the box. For a high-end card with such a high price tag this would have been a good idea. |
|
- No game included | |
| Performance | + | - | |
| Looking at performance the GTX580 is in a class of its own. In every single benchmark the 580 easily catches the lead of the single GPU cards. In some benchmarks the GTX580 is even able to outperform a Radeon HD 5970 dual GPU card. Therefore it's no wonder that this card is the fastest money can buy. | - Fastest Single-GPU-Card | ||
| Overclocking | + | - | |
| Looking at the dissipation power which is already quite high the card still is a lot of fun for overclocking. Increasing the voltage slightly has already been enough to stably reach 966 MHz. In our case the graphics memory could be overclocked to 1'166 MHz which also is a good result. To be honest, we didn't expect to reach clock rates far beyond 900 MHz. The only drawback is the integrated thermal throttling circuit which can clock down the card as soon as it get too hot. |
- Overclocking 966 MHz |
- Thermal throttling | |
| Recommendation | + | - | |
| For once the recommendation has been quite easy. If your looking for the most powerful graphics card on the market then you're definitely well off with the ASUS ENGTX580. Furthermore it is also fun for overclocking, what we really didn't expect. |
- Enthusiasts - High-End Gamers |
- Budget-Gamer/Overclocker | |
The ASUS ENGTX580 can be bought at Digitec to a price of CHF 629.- (est. EUR 449.-).
Author: Marc Voser, m.voser@ocaholic.ch Copy edited by: Marc Büchel, m.buechel@ocaholic.ch & Christian Ney c.ney@ocaholic.ch
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