Nvidia GTX 580 Update (with benchmarks)

After the sound thrashing nVidia delivered to Ati earlier this year in the DX11 dept, one could forgive them for resting on their laurels a little, maybe breaking the monotony with a dual Fermi to rival the 5970, but instead have arrived with a refresh of the current leader in single-GPU systems, the GTX 480. Due to launch on Monday the 8th of November at a price of £450, the question is, is this the true successor to the first Fermi king, or a fast-tracked attempt to knock the wind out of AMD’s sales with the new 6000 series?

A quick on-paper comparison:

Generally speaking, there is a 10% increase in speed across the board, as well as a slight drop in Power Use, though this has yet to be confirmed.

In these recently-leaked benchmarks, the 580 outperforms the ATi 5870 by 45% on average (10 to 250%,), and the 480 from 10 to 30%. Though these tests are most likely on early pre-release drivers, and none of the 6000 series where brought in as a comparison, they still show the 580’s potential, especially in heavily tessellated demos, such as Unigine Heaven, StoneGiant and Lost Planet 2, as well as DX11 rich games such as Metro 2033.

Whether it will stand up against AMD’s last flagship 5970 looks less likely, however, though it is worth bearing in mind that this is a single chip vs a dual board.

All in all, it seems an impressive piece of kit, if maybe a little less than revolutionary. Yes it gives a performance increase; Yes, it (allegedly) uses (slightly) less power, but it isn’t really the revolution the 480 was, and personally I feel that this is little more than a refresh to keep nVidia on top of the stack while both manufacturers race to finish their giantkillers. The launch price could also lead to competition from it’s cheaper predecessor, the GTX 480.