A GTX 580 or a GTX 570

[koolkat574]

First, I do realize the price difference, and performance difference between the two cards. I am placing an order for the parts for the Sandy Bridge system that I am building in the next couple days. On Newegg, the Msi Twin Frozr III 570 that I was going to order is out of stock 🙁 Since I am finacing the build with the Newegg Preferred Membership, I am in a position to put a Lightning 580 instead. Either way, I will have the system paid off near Christmas. The 580 is slightly more than I want to spend though. Should I splurge and get it anyway, or should I hope that the 570 gets back in stock this week?

My system will be as follows:
Proc: i5-2500k, with a Cooler Master 212 EVO cooler
Motherboard: p8z68-v pro motherboard
Ram: G.skill Sniper 8gb ram
PSU: PowerPCCooling Silencer 950watt
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint 1tb (probably will add an SSD later)

I have an Asus 23" monitor that I will use at runs at 1080p, but I think it'll go up to x1200...I will also be adding another card down the road, and probably overclocking everything.

 

[gmcizzle]

I vote for GTX 580...put that 950w to good use! Plus, if you love overclocking, the 580 is a much better OCer than a 570, especially with a good cooling system on it.

 

[buzznut]

The GTX 580 is serious overkill for 1080p. Its what they call past the point of reason in the graphics card article every month. In other words, the extra cash will not provide tangible benefits for you, other than bragging rights.

Despite it being out at newegg, I would look to other vendors to see if its in stock. Other than that, I like the Twin frozer series but there are other worthy cards out there.

 

[koolkat574]

I like your rational approach, Buzznut. I also like your way of thinking gMcizzle. hmmmmmmmm.....

 

[Deemo13]

My buddy has a GTX570 with a 2600K and there has been nothing he has not been able to play on max graphics on 1920x1080. I would say that if you were running 2560xwhatever go with the 580, but the 570 will give you sufficient 1080p performance for the games today and future games.

 

[koolkat574]

Yeah, I know that a 570 will give me great performance at those resolutions, especially on one monitor. I just wanted to get other opinions since I can't decide lol

 

[gmcizzle]

What games are you looking to play? BF3/Crysis/Metro2033 type games or Minecraft/WoW/Source-engine games?

 

[koolkat574]

Battlefield 3, Skyrim, Mass Effect 3, Crysises, Metro, The Half-life games, Witcher/Witcher 2, League of Legends, the Old Republic...whatever else looks interesting. I'll also be using it to write papers and stuff for the university but that won't be very computationally intensive.

 

[gmcizzle]

If you're looking to max all those games at 1920x1080 or 1920x1200 a 580 will do the job on all of them, and the 570 will do the job on most of them. Believe me, a 580 is not overkill for Crysis 2 and BF3 at those resolutions. In fact, if you want a minimum of no less than ~40fps on those games, I would advise an even stronger solution than a single 580. I have a 580 running at 910/1820mhz. In Crysis 2 with dx11 pack and hi-res textures, my fps can definitely dip into the low 30s at times. In the BF3 beta (on caspian border), my fps can dip to around 35 on ultra, although this is much rarer than in Crysis 2. I play on 1920x1080 btw. The 570 may be better in terms of price/performance but if you want frames above 30 at all times with a single GPU, the 580 is your answer.

 

[koolkat574]

Regardless of which I pick, I will add a second one later almost certainly

 

[gmcizzle]

Many people say 1GB VRAM is enough for 1080p, but I'm not convinced. While running Crysis 2 with dx11 and hi-res on, over 1.4GB of my 1.5GB available was used, although no big performance difference was noted between 1GB and 2GB cards using the same settings in Crysis 2. If you're looking to add a second one later you definitely want a more future proof card, and to be honest I'm not so sure 1.5GB VRAM will be sufficient for very long. If you're not looking to upgrade your cards for 3 years or more, you may want to look into 2-3GB cards, although 3GB is certainly overkill for 1920x1200 today.

 

[Energy96]

If you want your card to still be viable at max settings 1-2 yrs from now go with the 580. What is overkill today is necessary tomorrow.

 

[koolkat574]

I don't know when I'll build another system after this, and I have looked at the 3gb versions, but I have decided against it. If I need to upgrade later, I will.

 

[FlintIronStagg]

you wont need 3gb of vram unless youa re on resolutions higher than 1920x1080. if you are wanting to add another card for sli later, then the 570 will be the best overall for bang for buck and save you alot of money in the long run. if you want the 15% difference in performance for the overpriced(imo) 580, then go ahead and get it

 

[Ninja Pants]

580 is ~15% faster yet 50% more expensive than the 570. I couldn't possibly recommend buying one. The 570 is the sweet spot for Nvidia, get one now and add another one in time.

 

[FlintIronStagg]

580 is ~15% faster yet 50% more expensive than the 570. I couldn't possibly recommend buying one. The 570 is the sweet spot for Nvidia, get one now and add another one in time.

+1

 

[pro-gamer]

well,gtx 580 is better of its memory clock,high frequency,texture unit etc now click on the link and see the difference...

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/306?vs=305

 

[FlintIronStagg]

we all know its technically better; its a matter of if the 15% performance increase over the 570/6970 is worth the extra 120-140 bux for the card.

 

[zeus1356]

if you wanna get crazy you could buy a 560 twin frozr II and overclock it so its as fast as a 580. very realistic to oc those cards to that level. much cheaper. just a thought though.

 

[FlintIronStagg]

if you wanna get crazy you could buy a 560 twin frozr II and overclock it so its as fast as a 580. very realistic to oc those cards to that level. much cheaper. just a thought though.

the 560 can never reach 580 speeds.

 

[Gothams Finest]

580 is ~15% faster yet 50% more expensive than the 570. I couldn't possibly recommend buying one. The 570 is the sweet spot for Nvidia, get one now and add another one in time.

Agreed

 

[Gothams Finest]

if you wanna get crazy you could buy a 560 twin frozr II and overclock it so its as fast as a 580. very realistic to oc those cards to that level. much cheaper. just a thought though.

:lol: The 560 can not be overclocked to 580 speeds.

 

[gmcizzle]

The 580 is about 30% more expensive than a 570, and is 15% faster at stock speeds yes, but the 580 has a bigger headroom for OC too. You can't use more than 1.1v for the 570 without damaging it but you can go to 1.15v and beyond with a 580. Still, yes, the 570 is better in terms of price/performance.

Even if the 560 and 570 can be overclocked to 580 'speeds' it still has less shader cores, so you would have to overclock it much further to get equal performance.

 

[FlintIronStagg]

The 580 is about 30% more expensive than a 570, and is 15% faster at stock speeds yes, but the 580 has a bigger headroom for OC too. You can't use more than 1.1v for the 570 without damaging it but you can go to 1.15v and beyond with a 580. Still, yes, the 570 is better in terms of price/performance.

Even if the 560 and 570 can be overclocked to 580 'speeds' it still has less shader cores, so you would have to overclock it much further to get equal performance.

like i stated earlier, everyone knows the 580 performs better than the 570/6970; the dilemma is whether OP considers the extra 120-140 bux worth the slight increase in performance. imo, it is not.

 

[cyberkuberiah]

580