Gigabyte GTX 580 Super Overclock Review
January 27th, 2012 | 
Will three fans enable Gigabyte to capture the single-GPU performance crown?
We found the Asus Matrix GTX 580 Platinum that we reviewed in the November 2011 issue to be pretty badass: It’s a solid, factory-overclocked card that’s impressively easy to push even harder. But it’s also three slots wide and requires two 8-pin PCIe power connectors. Gigabyte’s GTX 580 Super Overclock (model GV-N580SO-15L) takes Nvidia’s GPU even further, pumping the core from a stock 772MHz all the way to 855MHz, and the card’s 1.5GB of GDDR5 memory from a stock 1,002MHz to 1,025MHz (the Matrix GTX 580 comes out of the box with its GPU running at 816MHz and its memory at 1,002MHz). And the Gigabyte takes up only two slots and uses just a single 8-pin power connector.
Gigabyte, like Asus, provides software to help you overclock the card even more, but Gigabyte’s card lacks the other engineering amenities that Asus provides, including voltage control, insta-max fan speed, and reset-to-factory-settings buttons. This renders Gigabyte’s offering less forgiving when it comes to pushing the envelope. The Super OC ships with three cooling fans, which must be better than the two on the Matrix, right? Well, the card remained cool enough during our benchmarks, but we also found it to be noisier under load than the Matrix card.
Gigabyte's GTX 580 Super Overclock requires just two expansion slots and one 8-pin PCIe power connection.
With those thoughts in mind, let’s discuss performance: Gigabyte’s card edged out Asus’s, but it was by no means a clean sweep: the Asus Matrix card won several benchmark categories, with Unigine Heaven being the most notable. Several other results—including Just Cause 2 and Metro 2033—were essentially ties. So the Gigabyte’s performance is pretty good, but it’s not quite as over-the-top as we had expected. Also, take a look at the difference in power consumption. This is where Asus’s careful binning of GTX 580 GPUs comes in: The Matrix consumes much less juice than the Super Overclock, which likely will leave you more headroom for overclocking.
All these factors are reflected in the card’s street price, which is $10 less than the Asus (and Gigabyte was offering a $20 rebate at press time). So the Super Overclock delivers fewer features and a little less performance and headroom, but also a lower price tag. You’ll need to decide which factors are most important to you.
This article was written by MaximumPC (Source)
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Product Description
Powered by NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 GPU. Supports PCI Express 2.0. Microsoft DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.0 support. Integrated with industry's best 1536 MB GDDR5 memory and 384-bit memory interface. Supports NVIDIA PureVideo HD technologyProduct Details
- Chipset: GTX580 Engine Clock: 795 MHz Video Memory: 1536MB DDR5
- Memory Clock: 4008 MHz Memory Interface: 384-bit Bus: PCI-Express 2.0 x16 RAMDAC: 400 MHz
- Stream Processors: 512 Max. Resolution: 2560 x 1600 Connectors: Dual DVI, Mini HDMI Thermal: Fansink
- Support Microsoft Windows 7/ Vista Support nVidia PhysX Technology Support nVidia CUDA Technology Support nVidia PureVideo HD Technology
- Support nVidia SLI Technology Support HDCP - High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection Support Microsoft DirectX 11
- Shader Model 5.0 and OpenGL 4.0 Minimum 600W or greater system power supply w/ 1x 6-pin & 1x 8-pin external power connector
- Support Shader Model 5.0 and OpenGL 4.0 Minimum 600W or greater system power supply w/ 1x 6-pin & 1x 8-pin external power connector
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