Long time since I reviewed a high-end card, got this card some time back but not found the opportunity to publish it. 🙁 Many apologies to my dear readers, and also ASUS Malaysia
The Card
Here’s some photos of the beauty.
It’s THICK, really thick.
Signature LED Load Indicator
Button to immediately run the fan at 100% …….. quite pointless though, unless your casing is always open. Great for OCers for their next record breaking endeavor but once the casing it’s closed, you probably won’t touch it.
2x 8pin PCI-E power connector sockets.
Heatpiped heatsinks.
Good array of output, and there’s also a SAFE MODE button there.
More details at the Official Product page.
Here’s a video of the card, highlighting the 100% fan speed mode and the LED Load Indicator.
Test Setup
The computer setup used for this review.
| Processor | Intel Core i5-2500K @ 4.2 Ghz |
| RAM | Kingston Value RAM 4GB 1333 |
| Motherboard | MSI P67A-GD65 |
| Cooler | Intel stock cooler |
| Monitor | 20″ Dell Ultra-sharp Wide-screen LCD |
| Power Supply | Vantec Ion2 520w |
| Operating System | Windows 7 32bit |
| Driver Version | nVidia GeForce 275.33 |
Below is the GPU-Z for both default and overclocked speed.
The Performance
Crysis
Graphic Detail : Maximum @ 1680×1050
| Card | Average |
| ASUS GTX 580 | 45.73 |
| ASUS GTX 580 OC | 51.54 |
| ASUS HD 6950 | 39.72 |
| Leadtek GTX 460 | 24.22 |
Mafia II
Graphic Detail : Maximum @ Full HD
| Card | Average |
| ASUS GTX 580 | 41.1 |
| ASUS GTX 580 OC | 47.8 |
| ASUS HD 6950 | 18 |
| Leadtek GTX 460 | 34 |
Lost Planet 2
Graphic Detail : Maximum @ Full HD
| Card | Average |
| ASUS GTX 580 | 55.6 |
| ASUS GTX 580 OC | 61.5 |
Alien Vs Predator
Graphic Detail : Default setting @ Full HD
| Card | Average |
| ASUS GTX 580 | 73 |
| ASUS GTX 580 OC | 82.4 |
*The Radeon HD 6950 cards fail badly with Physx enabled. When Physx disabled, it goes to 58.4 fps.
Furmark
Graphic Detail : Maximum @ Full HD
| Card | Average |
| ASUS GTX 580 | 103 |
| ASUS GTX 580 OC | 118 |
| ASUS HD 6950 | 54 |
| Leadtek GTX 460 | 64 |
Unigine Heaven 2.0
Graphic Detail : Full HD, 4xAA, 16xAF, Tesselation at NORMAL.
| Card | Average |
| ASUS GTX 580 | 54.6 |
| ASUS GTX 580 OC | 61.3 |
| ASUS HD 6950 | 46.3 |
| Leadtek GTX 460 | 31.8 |
Operating Temperature
Furmark was used for graphic card stressing.
| Card | Idle (°C) | Load (°C) | Stress (°C) |
| ASUS GTX 580 | 43 | 69 | 79 |
| ASUS GTX 580 OC | 41 | 77 | 100c (and crashed) |
Readings were taken when ambient temperature was around 25°C.
– Load, Furmark was run for 1 minute at Full HD with 4xAA.
– Stress, Furmark was run under the Stress Test mode for 5 minutes.
Conclusion
It’s a good card from a good brand. It performs very well……….. and it’s going to cut a hole in your wallet so huge, it’s no longer a wallet (costs almost RM 2,000).
Recommended? Yes but only to those who want feature and performance and have little to no consideration about the cost factor. 🙂 As you can see I was using a 460w PSU on it, well it works but I don’t recommend anyone to do so. I only did that because my 650w PSU went bongkers.
“In a cat’s eye, all things belong to cats.” – English proverb
Bloody expensive but awesome card! Only for the hardcore!