Zotac GTX580 Review

3D Mark Vantage

This is where dreams are made or shattered. It’s obvious straight away that the nVidia dream is most definitely made. It annihilates all of our previous single GPU scores and runs very close to some dual-GPU ones too. Incredible performance. The only sad thing is that it’s what the GTX480 should have been in the first place.

We know that 3D Mark isn’t the be-all and end-all of things, but rather a hint at performance. Even still the GTX580 is Gatling Gun compared to the musket of the GTX480. Even the Lightning when overclocked, which is a performance behemoth, is left trailing in the wake of the new nVidia effort.

Unigine

Every time we bring Unigine to the party we’re always happy to see it, such is the level of eye-candy on offer. The main comparison here is obviously between the GTX580 and GTX480, and in this regards the Zotac spanks it quite hard indeed. Sure the Lightning bests it when overclocked, but that’s the zenith of GTX480 possibilities, whereas this is a bog-stock reference card.

0x Anti-Aliasing

8x Anti-Aliasing

At 8 times AA we can see how the GTX580 is starting to struggle a little. We are not quite sure why. Maybe there is a built-in thermal detune and we’re hitting it. It doesn’t appear to be the case though. Although Unigine is notoriously hard to tame.