Asus GeForce GTX580

Asus breaks out the factory overclocked Nvidia GeForce GTX580, in a bid to retain the performance crown. The new top-end graphics card is certainly an upgrade and is priced sweet for those building a new high-performance PC. The question is, how much of an improvement is the new Fermi over the graphics cards already present in the market?
Specifications
Graphics EngineNVIDIA GeForce GTX 580
Bus StandardPCI Express 2.0
Video MemoryGDDR5 1536MB
Engine Clock782 MHz
CUDA Core512
Shader Clock1564 MHz
Memory Clock4008 MHz ( 1002 MHz GDDR5 )
RAMDAC400 MHz
Memory Interface384-bit
ResolutionD-Sub Max Resolution : 2048x1536
DVI Max Resolution : 2560x1600
InterfaceDVI Output : Yes x 2 (DVI-I)
HDMI Output : Yes x 1 (via Mini HDMI to HDMI adaptor x 1)
HDCP Support : Yes
Accessories1 x Power cable
1 x Mini HDMI to HDMI adaptor
Software*Please follow the driver setup instruction to download SmartDoctor application on ASUS website prior to use
Dimensions11 " x 5 " Inch


Design
The Asus GeForce GTX580 (ENGTX580/2DI/1536MD5) is largely a reference designed graphics card by Nvidia, through and through. The dual-slot cooler is hidden behind a black covering, with only the fan being visible. The fan clearly kept the card well-cooled, as the GPU temperature was very decent for a high-end card. The fan never did get noisy unlike the reference GTX480. Though long, the card does not quite look threatening, commendable for a top-end product.
The cooling system is closed for the most part, and the grilled heat vents at the rear throw heat out. It is targeted at high-end desktop computers (gaming / rendering professionals). So the type of PC cabinet and power supply required should have already been taken care of, so not much to think about on that front. Power input connectors on the card, ask for one 8-pin and one 6-pin PCI-E power input.
Performance
To prevent bottle-necks as much as possible, the test-bed consisted of an Intel Core i7 965 processor, Intel DX58SO motherboard, Intel X25-M 80GB SSD, 3GB of Kingston DDR3-2000MHz HyperX RAM, Tagan BZ-1300W PSU and Windows 7 Ultimate. We used the latest driver available at the time of testing, for the GeForce GTX580 - Nvidia ForceWare v263.09 WHQL.