Are these clocks single card or SLI/Tri SLI? I would imagine Pete could hit much higherthan 862 on the core if he was running a single 580, running them in Tri SLI is another matter entirely as you will be constantly fighting heat.
There are SLI and Tri-Sli systems running with over 950mhz overclocks on the core cores and I did point out that obv it's harder to get a higher overclock with a Tri setup, more so for voltage stability and yes heat on stock coolers is gonna suck
I hope I'm not going over the power rating! Yes, I'm 'only' using the 1500W supply but I have no way of measuring power usage. I don't think I'm running out of power - I've been playing games quite happily since the review.
I would be gutted to see those results after spending all that extra money. I do feel for you, as I have been in that boat...but hey, once bitten, twice shy. I do agree that the drivers may need to mature. I would like to see what the 580's scale like @ 5760x1200. I will wait and see how the HD6990 performs before I part with my cash or maybe add another HD5970 as these will be going cheap until the GTX 680 or HD7990 comes along. Fingers cross that it is just the drivers holding them back Cheers, Simon.
If I had the money I'd have done the same but I guess what you've done is (effectively the same) as going from 3 GTX 280's to 3x GTX 285's. They're clockbumps and power improvements at the end of the day. With hindsight should have kept the money and saved for the actual Next-Gen Chip. Best to stick with them now though I guess, not much to be gained by sending them back.
An important update! Well, it turns out the overclock I had wasn't stable either! after a couple of hours of gaming it'd crash out (even with upping IOH/ICH voltages). My cards are now running at 830MHz with a 1.1V core - temperatures of the hottest card hit 98C at most (and my room gets quite warm). I once upped my old 480s to 1.088V and saw temperatures of up to 106C . I also did a comparison of the noise between overclocked and stock and I have to say that actually the cards are quite a bit quieter than the 480s in SLI - definitely not silent though . That would be the smart thing! I hear many conflicting reports about quadfire though, so be wary!
So what would say if someone bought two for 2 way sli and kept them at stock, Would they be noticeably faster cooler than say two 480s SLI at stock ??
Aye, for me this is the interesting bit. Tbh, due to heat, power and driver stability I do not think I would ever consider a tri-SLI setup (or AMD equivalent) even if I had the money. It seems that 2 580s versus 2 480s is a much more clear cut win for the new cards in general, no?
You've got balls calling a £1200 purchase a let-down! Also I'd like to point out that there HAVE been reference designs with external heatpipes before. Just take a look at 7900GTX for starters.
When I ran 580s in SLI, the hottest card was only 2C cooler than the equivalent 480 set up. I think if you have a slot between them though then they would run cooler and much quieter. As for performance, it depends if you'd notice a ~10-20% increase in FPS. To be honest, I'd just get Afterburner and overclock your 480s (keeping voltages at stock). That way you should be within 5% of the 580s and you haven't had to fork out a shed load of cash! Well, after selling my old cards, it comes in at ~£600, which still stings quite a bit! And I'd forgotten about the 7900GTX! Admittedly it was before I properly got into the hardware side of things - I started building computers when the 8xxx series was in full flow.
It's such a small step-up from 480 to 580 of course your not like wow ! More money than sense. *just joking*
Thanks for sharing PeteJ - you're a crazy sod! There is still a bump ahead on the new cards so all is not lost. As others have mentioned, drivers will probably mature as well. Happy FRAP'ing P.S. Has everyone seen how cheap the 470s have become? ~£175 on scan.
Pete its a shame it cost so much for very little extra performance. But you still have a system to die for and as drivers mature you will be well placed to take advantage of them I'm sure. + rep for your honesty mate.
You're right about how I shouldn't expect a huge performance increase - it's just that I got bitten by the upgrade bug! As for the money I really, really shouldn't have done it. Yay for irresponsibility! Cheers mate! I just get annoyed at most review sites (BT excluded of course ) - they always seem to get some sort of super card!
Pete I thought I would post this link mate may be of interest to you. http://www.techpowerup.com/134460/Disable-GeForce-GTX-580-Power-Throttling-using-GPU-Z.html
I'm interested in this as I think overclocking is being adversely affected by this limit. However, I don't want to be the one who watches everything go up in a ball of flaming glory either! I'll wait for some more experienced people to have a go first. I would be interested in raising the limit to 300W though.
Pete, if it makes you feel any better, I’m sure you’ve created a lot of happiness for the other three forum members who bought your 480’s.
I'll be doing a separate review, probably tomorrow morning. I'm just about to set the Heaven Benchmark off for 2-3 hours to test stability, followed by a few hours of Shattered Horizon! Well, I suppose . I'd be interested in hearing from them actually - is the card really that loud and hot running guys? I can't really comment too much as tri SLI is doomed to be a noisy and heated affair (without water cooling of course).
Dude... the Zotac GTX480 is SWEEEEEET. My rig isn't in a case at the moment (ordered a FT02-W from scan, waiting for delivery) so is just sat on my desk on top of my mobo box. The card idles at around 40-44 degrees... and when I'm playing games it hits maybe 65-70 degrees. In my opinion that's nothing... Be interesting to see when its in the FT02 and overclocked as I'm currently running it at stock. As for noise...I'm always wearing my full ear headset when at my PC and I can't hear it at all... If I take the headset off I can hear it just but It's not anything that would annoy me. I know the 480 got a lot of greif for its heat and noise issues but i really really haven't noticed either of them. Maybe I'm just easily pleased I dunno? But Pete J has definitely made me a happy man for a long while... well maybe a year (Then I'll buy one of the 580's when he's running TriSLI 680's or something ^^)