MSI N580GTX Lightning
Category : NVIDIA
Published by Marc Büchel on 06.07.11
With the GTX 580 Lightning, MSI has a graphics card in its portfolio which promises to be extra class. Therefore the card comes with a completely customized TwinFrozerII cooler as well as a PCB that has been redesigned from bottom up. In this case you'll find numerous overclocking features combined with a reasonable noise level. For us this is reason enough to be very curious about the results. 
On the following pages we will show you the
strenghts and weaknesses of the MSI GTX 580 Lightning.
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[pagebreak]
Technical data / specifications
As soon as you start unboxing the MSI GTX 580 Lightning you'll notice that almost nothing is according to NVIDIAs reference design. Taking a closer look at the PCB reveals that this card has been customized for overclocking from bottom up. Instead of making the card longer MSI decided to extend the card height of the PCB by about two centimeters. Otherwise they would have run out of space quite quickly with all the features they chose to equip this card with. Regaring the power management for MSI put a sixteen phase design onto the GTX 580 Lightning which is a lot even from an extreme overclockers point of view. Furthermore the memory got its own power supply. Concerning quality MSI chose copper MOS over standard ones which can withstand much more current. Furthermore you'll find four proadlizers on this card which are there to optimize the power supply. If you do want to change voltages you can increase not only GPU and memory voltages even PLL voltage can be manipulated. For overclockers MSI even provides special BIOS versions using which one can get rid of "cold-bug" issues.
| MSI GTX 580 Lightning | GTX 560 TI | GTX 570 | GTX 580 | |
| Chip | GF110 | GF114 | GF110 | GF110 |
| Process | 40 nm | 40 nm | 40 nm | 40 nm |
| Transistors | 3.0 billion | 1.95 billion | 3.0 billion | 3.0billion |
| GPU clock | 832 MHz | 822 MHz | 732 MHz | 772 MHz |
| Shader clock | 1'664 MHz | 1'645 MHz | 1'464 MHz | 1'544 MHz |
| Memory | 1'536 MB GDDR5 | 1'024 MB GDDR5 | 1'280 MB GDDR5 | 1'536 MB GDDR5 |
| Memory clock | 4'100 MHz | 4'008 MHz | 3'800 MHz | 4'008 MHz |
| Memory interface | 384 Bit | 256 Bit | 320 Bit | 384 Bit |
| Memory bandwidth | 192'400 MB/s | 128'256 MB/s | 152'000 MB/s | 192'400 MB/s |
| TMUs | 64 | 64 | 60 | 64 |
| TAUs | 64 | 64 | 60 | 64 |
| Shader Cores | 512 (5D) | 384 (1D) | 480 (5D) | 512 (1D) |
| ROPs | 48 ROP | 32 ROP | 40 ROP | 48 ROP |
| Shader model | SM 5 | SM 5 | SM 5 | SM 5 |
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[pagebreak]
Preview / Delivery
The MSI GTX 580 Lightning comes in quite a big box. The delivery includes a Quick Start Guide, an MSI brochure, an installation CD, two power adaptors, two SLI bridges, a DVI-to-VGA-converter as well as three adaptors for voltage measuring purposes.
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[pagebreak]
Overclocking
For our overclocking test we were using MSI Afterburner in version 2.1 which allows you to increase voltages and clock frequencies. Feeding the GPU with an additional 0.93 volt resulted in a maximum clock speed of 970 MHz on the GPU. Regarding the memory we were able to squeeze 4'500 MHz out of these chips. The true overclocking potential you'll discover once you choose to cool this card using liquid nitrogen. For this purpose you can download a special BIOS version which removes any cold-bug related issues and deactivate all the different protection mechanisms like overcurrent- and overheat-protection.
Futuremark Overclocking
| 3DMark 11 Total | Score | Percent |
| ASUS EAH6990 (980 MHz / 5'756 MHz) | 9'201 | 170.92 % |
| ASUS EAH6990 (880 MHz / 5'000 MHz) | 8'625 | 160.22 % |
| ASUS GTX 590 (681 MHz / 3'620 MHz) | 8'572 | 159.24 % |
| NVIDIA GTX 590 (673 MHz / 3'602 MHz) | 8'564 | 159.09 % |
| ASUS GTX 590 | 8'123 | 150.90 % |
| NVIDIA GTX 590 | 8'043 | 149.41 % |
| MSI GTX 580 Lightning (GPU 970 MHz / Mem 4'500 MHz) | 7'103 | 131.95 % |
| ASUS GTX 580 DirectCUII (GPU 952 MHz / Mem 4'568 MHz) | 6'512 | 120.97 % |
| ASUS ENGTX 580 (GPU 966 MHz / Mem 2'332 MHz) | 6'212 | 115.40 % |
| ASUS GTX 570 DirectCUII (GPU 939 MHz / Mem 4'056 MHz) | 6'199 | 115.16 % |
| MSI GTX 580 Lightning | 6'048 | 160.08 % |
| ASUS GTX 580 DirectCUII | 5'988 | 111.24 % |
| ASUS HD6970 DirectCUII (974 MHz / Mem 5'872 MHz) | 5'656 | 105.07 % |
| ASUS ENGTX 580 | 5'383 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS EAH6970 (GPU 1'001 MHz / Mem 3'008 MHz) | 5'365 | 99.67 % |
| ASUS GTX 570 DirectCUII | 5'273 | 97.96 % |
| ASUS GTX 560 Ti DirectCUII Top (GPU 1'009 MHz / Mem 4'708 MHz) | 5'003 | 92.94 % |
| ASUS EAH6950 (GPU 986 MHz / Mem 5'764 MHz) | 4'733 | 87.92 % |
| ASUS EAH6950 | 4'606 | 85.57 % |
| ASUS GTX 560 Ti DirectCUII Top | 4'551 | 84.54 % |
| Gigabyte GTX460 Super Overclock (GPU 951 MHz / Mem 4'300 MHz) | 4'125 | 76.63 % |
| Gigabyte GTX460 Super Overclock | 3'754 | 69.74 % |
| ASUS GTX 550 Ti DirectCU Top (1100 MHz / 2800 MHz) | 3'067 | 56.98 % |
| ASUS GTX 550 Ti DirectCU Top | 2'717 | 50.47 % |
| ASUSEAH5550 (868 MHz / 1'134 MHz) | 1'519 | 28.22 % |
| ASUS ENGT440 (925 MHz / 980 MHz) | 1'492 | 27.72 % |
| ASUS ENGT430 (880 MHz / 1052 MHz) | 1'352 | 25.12 % |
| ASUS ENGT440 | 1'327 | 24.65 % |
| ASUS ENGT430 | 1'075 | 19.97 % |
| ASUS EAH5550 | 1'017 | 18.89 % |
| more is better | ||
| 3DMark 11 GPU | Score | Percent |
| ASUS EAH6990 (980 MHz / 5'756 MHz) | 11'047 | 193.91 % |
| ASUS EAH6990 (880 MHz / 5'000 MHz) | 9'977 | 175.13 % |
| NVIDIA GTX 590 (673 MHz / 3'602 MHz) | 9'786 | 171.77 % |
| ASUS GTX 590 (681 MHz / 3'620 MHz) | 9'724 | 170.69 % |
| ASUS GTX 590 | 8'914 | 156.47 % |
| NVIDIA GTX 590 | 8'854 | 155.42 % |
| MSI GTX 580 Lightning (GPU 970 MHz / Mem 4'500 MHz) | 7'346 | 128.95 % |
| ASUS ENGTX 580 (GPU 966 MHz / Mem 2'332 MHz) | 6'679 | 117.24 % |
| ASUS GTX 580 DirectCUII (GPU 952 MHz / Mem 4'568 MHz) | 6'731 | 118.15 % |
| ASUS GTX 570 DirectCUII (GPU 939 MHz / Mem 4'056 MHz) | 6'151 | 107.97 % |
| MSI GTX 580 Lightning | 5'952 | 178.47 % |
| ASUS GTX 580 DirectCUII | 5'872 | 103.53 % |
| ASUS ENGTX 580 | 5'697 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS HD6970 DirectCUII (974 MHz / Mem 5'872 MHz) | 5'510 | 96.72 % |
| ASUS EAH6970 (GPU 1'001 MHz / Mem 3'008 MHz) | 5'191 | 91.12 % |
| ASUS GTX 570 DirectCUII | 5'082 | 89.20 % |
| ASUS GTX 560 Ti DirectCUII Top (GPU 1'009 MHz / Mem 4'708 MHz) | 4'837 | 84.90 % |
| ASUS EAH6950 (GPU 986 MHz / Mem 5'764 MHz) | 4'641 | 81.46 % |
| ASUS GTX 560 Ti DirectCUII Top | 4'341 | 76.20 % |
| ASUS EAH6950 | 4'108 | 72.11 % |
| Gigabyte GTX460 Super Overclock (GPU 951 MHz / Mem 4'300 MHz) | 4'022 | 70.60 % |
| Gigabyte GTX460 Super Overclock | 3'562 | 62.52 % |
| ASUS GTX 550 Ti DirectCU Top (1100 MHz / 2800 MHz) | 2'777 | 48.74 % |
| ASUS GTX 550 Ti DirectCU Top | 2'440 | 42.83 % |
| ASUS EAH5550 (868 MHz/ 1'134 MHz) | 1'340 | 23.52 % |
| ASUS ENGT440 (925 MHz/ 980 MHz) | 1'309 | 22.98 % |
| ASUS ENGT430 (880 MHz / 1052 MHz) | 1'185 | 20.80 % |
| ASUS ENGT440 | 1'160 | 20.36 % |
| ASUS ENGT430 | 937 | 16.45 % |
| ASUS EAH5550 | 882 | 15.48 % |
| more is better | ||
Discuss this article in the forums
[pagebreak]
Test conditions
Hardware
| OS and Drivers |
|
| Mainboard |
|
| CPUs |
|
| Memory |
|
| Graphic Cards |
|
| HDD |
|
| PSU |
|
Software
Futuremark
- 3DMark 11
- Performance
- 3DMark Vantage
- Performance
Unigine Heaven Benchmark
| High | |
| API | DX11 |
| Stereo 3D | Disabled |
| Shaders | High |
| Tessellation | Extreme |
| Anisotropy | 16 |
| Anti-aliasing | 8x |
| Full Screen | Yes |
| Resolution | 1920x1080 |
Stone Giant
| High | |
| Resolution | 1920 x 1080 |
| Aspect | Auto |
| Tessellation | High |
| Window Mode | No |
World in Conflict
| High | |
| Resolution | 1920 x 1080 |
| Graphic Detail | very high |
| Antialiasing | 8x |
| Anisotropic Texture Filtering | 16x |
Resident Evil 5 DX10
| High | |
| Resolution | 1920 x 1080 |
| Display Mode | Full Screen |
| Refresh Rate | 60 Hz |
| V-Sync | No |
| [de]Bildwiederholrate[/de]Frame Rate | Full Screen |
| Antialiasing | 8x |
| Anisotropic Texture Filtering | 16x |
| Motion Blur | Yes |
| Shadow Detail | High |
| Texture Detail | High |
| Overall Quality | High |
Call of Juarez
| High | |
| Resolution | 1920 x 1080 |
| Display Mode | yes |
| Quality | High |
| Shadowmap size | 2048x2048 |
| Shadows quality | High |
| Antialiasing | 4x SSAA |
| Audio | disabled |
Far Cry 2 DX10
| High | |
| Resolution | 1920 x 1080 |
| Antialiasing | 8x |
| Direct3D | 10 |
| Fire | very high |
| Physics | very high |
| Real Trees | very high |
| Overall Quality | custom |
| Vegetation | very high |
| Shading | ultra high |
| Terrain | ultra high |
| Geometry | ultra high |
| Post FX | high |
| Texture | ultra high |
| Ambient | high |
| HDR | yes |
| Shadow | ultra high |
| Bloom | yes |
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[pagebreak]
3DMark 11
3DMark 11 is Futuremarks latest benchmark for the entire graphical subsystem. The benchmark uses DirectX 11 and it supports all recent features which can possibly generate high load on a GPU. Therefore you find tessellation, compute shader calculations, divers lighting effects and different depth of filed animations. Following we publish values regarding the performance preset of 3DMark 11.
| 3DMark 11 Total | Score | Percent |
| AMD Radeon HD6970 CrossFire | 8'772 | 245.23 % |
| ASUS EAH6990 (880 MHz / 5'000 MHz) | 8'625 | 241.12 % |
| ASUS EAH6990 (830 MHz / 5'000 MHz) | 8'370 | 233.99 % |
| ASUS GTX 590 | 8'123 | 227.09 % |
| NVIDIA GTX 590 | 8'043 | 224.85 % |
| MSI GTX 580 Lightning | 6'048 | 160.08 % |
| Palit GTX 580 SLI (3DMark11 wasn't supported in SLI by nVidia Drivers) | 5'841 | 163.29 % |
| ASUS GTX 580 DirectCUII | 5'988 | 167.40 % |
| ASUS GTX 580 | 5'803 | 162.23 % |
| ASUS HD6970 DirectCUII | 5'335 | 149.15 % |
| ASUS GTX 570 DirectCUII | 5'273 | 147.14 % |
| ASUS EAH6970 2GB | 5'175 | 144.67 % |
| Zotac GTX480 SLI (3DMark11 wasn't supported in SLI by nVidia Drivers) | 5'046 | 141.07 % |
| Zotac GTX 480 | 4'922 | 137.60 % |
| ASUS EAH6950 2GB | 4'606 | 128.77 % |
| ASUS GTX 560 Ti DirectCUII Top | 4'551 | 127.23 % |
| Gigabyte GTX460 Super Overclock | 3'754 | 104.95 % |
| ASUS EAH6850 | 3'577 | 100.00 % |
| EVGA GTX 460 EE | 3'404 | 95.16 % |
| ASUS GTX 550 Ti DirectCU Top | 2'717 | 75.96 % |
| ASUS ENGT440 | 1'327 | 37.10 % |
| ASUS ENGT430 | 1'075 | 30.05 % |
| ASUS EAH5550 | 1'017 | 28.43 % |
| more is better | ||
| 3DMark 11 GPU | Score | Percent |
| AMD Radeon HD6970 CrossFire | 10'189 | 305.52 % |
| ASUS EAH6990 (880 MHz / 5'000 MHz) | 9'977 | 299.16 % |
| ASUS EAH6990 (830 MHz / 5'000 MHz) | 9'571 | 286.98 % |
| ASUS GTX 590 | 8'914 | 267.29 % |
| NVIDIA GTX 590 | 8'854 | 265.49 % |
| MSI GTX 580 Lightning | 5'952 | 178.47 % |
| ASUS GTX 580 DirectCUII | 5'872 | 176.07 % |
| ASUS GTX 580 | 5'812 | 174.27 % |
| Palit ENGTX 580 SLI (3DMark11 wasn't supported in SLI by nVidia Drivers) | 5'697 | 170.82 % |
| ASUS HD6970 DirectCUII | 5'132 | 153.88 % |
| ASUS GTX 570 DirectCUII | 5'082 | 152.38 % |
| ASUS EAH6970 2GB | 4'949 | 148.40 % |
| Zotac GTX480 SLI (3DMark11 wasn't supported in SLI by nVidia Drivers) | 4'870 | 146.03 % |
| Zotac GTX 480 | 4'802 | 143.99 % |
| ASUS GTX 560 Ti DirectCUII Top | 4'341 | 130.16 % |
| ASUS EAH6950 2GB | 4'108 | 123.18 % |
| Gigabyte GTX460 Super Overclock | 3'562 | 106.81 % |
| ASUS EAH6850 | 3'335 | 100.00 % |
| EVGA GTX 460 EE | 3'148 | 94.39 % |
| ASUS GTX 550 Ti DirectCU Top | 2'440 | 73.16 % |
| ASUS ENGT440 | 1'160 | 34.78 % |
| ASUS ENGT430 | 937 | 28.10 % |
| ASUS EAH5550 | 882 | 26.45 % |
| more is better | ||
3DMark Vantage
3DMark Vantage is able to squeeze nearly everything out of a recent system. Therefore the feature liste is also pretty long: DirectX10, FP16-HDR, motion blur, parallax occlusion mapping, GPU-physics simulation and different shader effects are being used to even make recent high-end systems struggle.
| 3DMark Vantage | Score | Percent |
| Palit GTX 580 SLI | 36'482 | 262.50 % |
| AMD Radeon HD6970 CrossFire | 25'076 | 180.43 % |
| nVidia GTX 295 SLI | 24'638 | 177.28 % |
| Zotac GTX480 SLI | 24'520 | 176.43 % |
| ASUS EAH6990 (880 MHz / 5'000 MHz) | 24'353 | 175.22 % |
| ASUS EAH6990 (830 MHz / 5'000 MHz) | 24'309 | 174.91 % |
| ASUS GTX 590 | 23'995 | 172.65 % |
| NVIDIA GTX 590 | 23'588 | 169.72 % |
| MSI GTX 580 Lightning | 22'725 | 163.51 % |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 22'496 | 161.86 % |
| ASUS GTX 580 DirectCUII | 21'341 | 153.55 % |
| ASUS ENGTX 580 | 21'171 | 152.42 % |
| ASUS GTX 570 DirectCUII | 19'614 | 141.13 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 285 SLI | 19'441 | 139.88 % |
| ASUS HD6970 DirectCUII | 19'165 | 137.90 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 275 1792MB SLI | 19'098 | 137.41 % |
| ASUS EAH6970 2GB | 19'019 | 136.85 % |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 18'895 | 135.95 % |
| ASUS GTX 560 Ti DirectCUII Top | 18'273 | 131.48 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 18'244 | 131.27 % |
| Zotac GTX 480 | 17'859 | 128.50 % |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 17'732 | 127.58 % |
| nVidia GTX 295 | 17'598 | 126.62 % |
| ASUS EAH6950 2GB | 17'485 | 125.81 % |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 16'730 | 120.37 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 16'056 | 115.52 % |
| Gigabyte GTX460 Super Overclock | 16'024 | 115.30 % |
| ASUS EAH6850 DirectCU | 15'301 | 110.09 % |
| EVGA GTX 460 EE | 14'606 | 105.09 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 13'898 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 13'047 | 93.87 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 12'323 | 88.09 % |
| ASUS GTX 550 Ti DirectCU Top | 11'793 | 84.85 % |
| ASUS EAH3870X2 | 9'508 | 68.41 % |
| ASUS ENGTS250 DK | 8'481 | 61.02 % |
| EVGA 8800 GT 512MB | 6'427 | 46.24 % |
| ASUS ENGT440 | 5'827 | 41.93 % |
| Zotac 9600 GT ECO | 4'803 | 34.56 % |
| ASUS ENGT430 | 4'609 | 33.16 % |
| ASUS EAH5550 | 3'614 | 26.00 % |
| more is better | ||
| 3DMark Vantage GPU | Score | Percent |
| Palit GTX 580 SLI | 33'378 | 254.08 % |
| AMD Radeon HD6970 CrossFire | 29'775 | 226.65 % |
| Zotac GTX480 SLI | 29'283 | 222.90 % |
| nVidia GTX 295 SLI | 29'128 | 221.72 % |
| ASUS EAH6990 (880 MHz / 5'000 MHz) | 28'525 | 217.13 % |
| ASUS EAH6990 (830 MHz / 5'000 MHz) | 28'397 | 216.16 % |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 25'544 | 194.44 % |
| MSI GTX 580 Lightning | 25'091 | 190.99 % |
| ASUS ENGTX 580 | 23'628 | 179.85 % |
| ASUS GTX 590 | 23'588 | 179.55 % |
| NVIDIA GTX 590 | 23'353 | 177.77 % |
| ASUS GTX 580 DirectCUII | 23'440 | 178.43 % |
| ASUS GTX 570 DirectCUII | 20'914 | 159.20 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 285 SLI | 20'715 | 157.68 % |
| ASUS HD6970 DirectCUII | 20'039 | 152.54 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 275 1792MB SLI | 19'960 | 151.93 % |
| ASUS EAH6970 2GB | 19'835 | 150.99 % |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 19'789 | 150.63 % |
| ASUS GTX 560 Ti DirectCUII Top | 18'944 | 144.20 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 18'745 | 142.68 % |
| Zotac GTX 480 | 18'345 | 139.64 % |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 18'095 | 137.74 % |
| nVidia GTX 295 | 17'857 | 135.93 % |
| ASUS EAH6950 2GB | 17'679 | 134.57 % |
| Gigabyte GTX460 Super Overclock | 15'755 | 119.93 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 15'858 | 120.71 % |
| ASUS EAH6850 DirectCU | 14'866 | 113.16 % |
| EVGA GTX 460 EE | 14'002 | 106.58 % |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 13'753 | 104.68 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 13'137 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 12'156 | 92.53 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 11'337 | 86.29 % |
| ASUS GTX 550 Ti DirectCU Top | 10'717 | 81.58 % |
| ASUS EAH3870X2 | 8'292 | 63.12 % |
| ASUS ENGTS250 DK | 6'722 | 51.17 % |
| EVGA 8800 GT 512MB | 5'328 | 40.55 % |
| ASUS ENGT440 | 4'782 | 36.40 % |
| Zotac 9600 GT ECO | 3'878 | 29.52 % |
| ASUS ENGT430 | 3'709 | 28.23 % |
| ASUS EAH5550 | 2'863 | 21.79 % |
| more is better | ||
Discuss this article in the forums
[pagebreak]
Unigine Heaven
| Unigine Heaven | Score | Percent |
| Palit GTX 580 SLI | 1'484 | 420.40 % |
| AMD Radeon HD6970 CrossFire | 1'247 | 353.26 % |
| Zotac GTX480 SLI | 1'223 | 346.46 % |
| ASUS EAH6990 (880 MHz / 5'000 MHz) | 1'217 | 344.76 % |
| ASUS EAH6990 (830 MHz / 5'000 MHz) | 1'183 | 335.13 % |
| ASUS GTX 590 | 1'276 | 361.47 % |
| NVIDIA GTX 590 | 1'122 | 317.85 % |
| ASUS GTX 580 DirectCUII | 883 | 250.14 % |
| MSI GTX 580 Lightning | 878 | 248.73 % |
| ASUS ENGTX 580 | 812 | 230.03 % |
| ASUS GTX 570 DirectCUII | 777 | 220.11 % |
| EVGA GTX 460 EE SLI | 690 | 195.47 % |
| ASUS GTX 560 Ti DirectCUII Top | 677 | 191.78 % |
| ASUS EAH6970 2GB | 637 | 180.45 % |
| ASUS HD6970 DirectCUII | 635 | 179.89 % |
| Zotac GTX 480 | 593 | 167.99 % |
| ASUS EAH6950 2GB | 583 | 165.16 % |
| Gigabyte GTX460 Super Overclock | 520 | 147.31 % |
| EVGA GTX 460 EE | 447 | 126.63 % |
| ASUS EAH6850 | 353 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS GTX 550 Ti DirectCU Top | 334 | 94.62 % |
| ASUS ENGT440 | 163 | 46.18 % |
| ASUS ENGT430 | 126 | 35.69 % |
| ASUS EAH5550 | 86 | 24.36 % |
| more is better | ||
| Unigine Heaven | Average | Percent |
| Palit GTX 580 SLI | 58.9 fps | 420.71 % |
| AMD Radeon HD6970 CrossFire | 49.5 fps | 353.57 % |
| Zotac GTX480 SLI | 48.6 fps | 347.14 % |
| ASUS EAH6990 (880 MHz / 5'000 MHz) | 48.3 fps | 345.00 % |
| ASUS EAH6990 (830 MHz / 5'000 MHz) | 47.0 fps | 335.71 % |
| ASUS GTX 590 | 50.7 fps | 362.14 % |
| NVIDIA GTX 590 | 44.5 fps | 317.86 % |
| ASUS GTX 580 DirectCUII | 35.3 fps | 252.14 % |
| MSI GTX 580 Lightning | 34.9 fps | 249.29 % |
| ASUS ENGTX 580 | 32.2 fps | 230.00 % |
| ASUS GTX 570 DirectCUII | 30.9 fps | 220.71 % |
| EVGA GTX 460 EE SLI | 27.4 fps | 195.71 % |
| ASUS GTX 560 Ti DirectCUII Top | 26.9 fps | 192.14 % |
| ASUS EAH6970 2GB | 25.3 fps | 180.71 % |
| ASUS HD6970 DirectCUII | 25.2 fps | 180.00 % |
| Zotac GTX 480 | 23.5 fps | 167.86 % |
| ASUS EAH6950 2GB | 23.1 fps | 165.00 % |
| Gigabyte GTX460 Super Overclock | 20.6 fps | 147.14 % |
| EVGA GTX 460 EE | 17.7 fps | 126.43 % |
| ASUS EAH6850 | 14.0 fps | 100.00 % |
| ASUS GTX 550 Ti DirectCU Top | 13.3 fps | 95.00 % |
| ASUS ENGT440 | 6.5 fps | 46.43 % |
| ASUS ENGT430 | 5.0 fps | 35.71 % |
| ASUS EAH5550 | 3.4 fps | 24.29 % |
| more is better | ||
Stone Giant
| Stone Giant | Average | Percent |
| Palit GTX 580 SLI | 159 fps | 512.90 % |
| ASUS GTX 590 | 123 fps | 396.77 % |
| NVIDIA GTX 590 | 122 fps | 393.55 % |
| ASUS EAH6990 (830 MHz / 5'000 MHz) | 119 fps | 383.87 % |
| ASUS EAH6990 (880 MHz / 5'000 MHz) | 107 fps | 345.16 % |
| EVGA GTX 460 EE SLI | 96 fps | 309.68 % |
| MSI GTX 580 Lightning | 92 fps | 296.77 % |
| ASUS ENGTX 580 | 86 fps | 277.42 % |
| ASUS GTX 580 DirectCUII | 85 fps | 274.19 % |
| Zotac GTX480 SLI | 83 fps | 267.74 % |
| ASUS GTX 570 DirectCUII | 75 fps | 241.94 % |
| Zotac GTX 480 | 75 fps | 241.94 % |
| ASUS GTX 560 Ti DirectCUII Top | 66 fps | 212.90 % |
| Gigabyte GTX460 Super Overclock | 53 fps | 170.97 % |
| AMD Radeon HD6970 CrossFire | 51 fps | 164.52 % |
| ASUS HD6970 DirectCUII | 51 fps | 164.52 % |
| ASUS EAH6970 2GB | 50 fps | 161.29 % |
| ASUS EAH6950 2GB | 44 fps | 141.94 % |
| EVGA GTX 460 EE | 48 fps | 154.84 % |
| ASUS GTX 550 Ti DirectCU Top | 37 fps | 119.35 % |
| ASUS EAH6850 | 31 fps | 100.00 % |
| ASUS ENGT440 | 17 fps | 54.84 % |
| ASUS ENGT430 | 14 fps | 45.16 % |
| ASUS EAH5550 | 10 fps | 32.26 % |
| more is better | ||
Discuss this article in the forums
[pagebreak]
World in Conflict
| World in Conflict, 1920 x 1080, high details, 8xAA 16xAF | Average | Percent |
| Palit GTX 580 SLI | 110 fps | 164.18 % |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 106 fps | 179.66 % |
| ASUS EAH6990 (880 MHz / 5'000 MHz) | 84 fps | 142.37 % |
| Zotac GTX480 SLI | 83 fps | 140.68 % |
| AMD Radeon HD6970 CrossFire | 82 fps | 138.98 % |
| MSI GTX 580 Lightning | 82 fps | 138.98 % |
| ASUS GTX 590 | 81 fps | 137.29 % |
| ASUS EAH6990 (830 MHz / 5'000 MHz) | 81 fps | 137.29 % |
| NVIDIA GTX 590 | 80 fps | 135.59 % |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 77 fps | 130.50 % |
| ASUS ENGTX 580 | 77 fps | 130.50 % |
| ASUS GTX 580 DirectCUII | 75 fps | 127.12 % |
| Zotac GTX 480 | 75 fps | 127.12 % |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 73 fps | 123.72 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 72 fps | 122.03 % |
| ASUS GTX 560 Ti DirectCUII Top | 72 fps | 122.03 % |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 69 fps | 116.94 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 285 SLI | 69 fps | 116.94 % |
| ASUS GTX 570 DirectCUII | 68 fps | 115.25 % |
| ASUS HD6970 DirectCUII | 68 fps | 115.25 % |
| ASUS EAH6970 2GB | 67 fps | 113.56 % |
| EVGA GTX 460 EE SLI | 67 fps | 113.56 % |
| ASUS EAH6950 2GB | 61 fps | 103.39 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 275 1792MB SLI | 59 fps | 100.00 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 59 fps | 100.00 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 59 fps | 100.00 % |
| ASUS EAH6850 DirectCU | 57 fps | 96.61 % |
| nVidia GTX 295 SLI | 57 fps | 96.61 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 56 fps | 94.91 % |
| Gigabyte GTX460 Super Overclock | 55 fps | 93.22 % |
| nVidia GTX 295 | 53 fps | 89.83 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 50 fps | 84.74 % |
| EVGA GTX 460 EE | 41 fps | 69.49 % |
| ASUS GTX 550 Ti DirectCU Top | 39 fps | 66.10 % |
| ASUS EAH3870X2 | 26 fps | 44.06 % |
| ASUS ENGTS250 DK | 25 fps | 42.37 % |
| EVGA 8800 GT 512MB | 21 fps | 35.59 % |
| ASUS ENGT440 | 18 fps | 30.51 % |
| Zotac 9600 GT ECO | 18 fps | 30.51 % |
| ASUS ENGT430 | 13 fps | 22.03 % |
| ASUS EAH5550 | 10 fps | 16.95 % |
| more is better | ||
Resident Evil 5
Resident Evil uses nearly every modern rendering technology: HDR, Hemisphere Lighting, Soft Shadows, Soft Particles, Field- und Motion-Blur oder auch Alpha to Coverage and static Ambient Occlusion. Furthermore Resident Evil 5 has been optimized for multicore architectures and already comes DirectX11 ready. By using the DirectX9 as well as the DirectX10 benchmark we can again show you CPU-scaling with low resolutions and the compared to the CPU overproportional influence of the graphics card at high resolutions.
| Resident Evil 5, 1920 x 1080, high details, 8xAA 16xAF | Average | Percent |
| AMD Radeon HD6970 CrossFire | 162.50 fps | 169.62 % |
| Palit GTX 580 SLI | 140.10 fps | 146.24 % |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 123.20 fps | 128.60 % |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 119.50 fps | 124.73 % |
| ASUS EAH6970 2GB | 113.60 fps | 139.46 % |
| ASUS HD6970 DirectCUII | 113.00 fps | 117.95 % |
| ASUS GTX 590 | 110.20 fps | 115.03 % |
| NVIDIA GTX 590 | 109.30 fps | 114.09 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 285 SLI | 108.60 fps | 113.36 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 275 1792MB SLI | 108.30 fps | 113.05 % |
| ASUS GTX 580 DirectCUII | 107.40 fps | 112.11 % |
| ASUS ENGTX 580 | 107.30 fps | 112.00 % |
| MSI GTX 580 Lightning | 107.20 fps | 111.90 % |
| ASUS EAH6950 2GB | 105.70 fps | 110.33 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 105.00 fps | 109.60 % |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 104.30 fps | 108.87 % |
| ASUS EAH6990 (880 MHz / 5'000 MHz) | 103.20 fps | 107.72 % |
| ASUS EAH6990 (830 MHz / 5'000 MHz) | 102.90 fps | 107.41 % |
| EVGA GTX 460 EE SLI | 101.80 fps | 106.26 % |
| nVidia GTX 295 | 100.50 fps | 104.90 % |
| ASUS GTX 570 DirectCUII | 101.70 fps | 106.16 % |
| ASUS GTX 560 Ti DirectCUII Top | 99.50 fps | 103.86 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 97.20 fps | 101.46 % |
| Zotac GTX480 SLI | 96.50 fps | 100.73 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 95.80 fps | 100.00 % |
| nVidia GTX 295 SLI | 95.30 fps | 99.48 % |
| ASUS EAH6850 DirectCU | 93.30 fps | 97.39 % |
| Zotac GTX 480 | 92.20 fps | 78.50 % |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 90.30 fps | 94.25 % |
| Gigabyte GTX460 Super Overclock | 88.10 fps | 91.96 % |
| EVGA GTX 460 EE | 78.60 fps | 82.04 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 75.00 fps | 78.28 % |
| ASUS GTX 550 Ti DirectCU Top | 69.20 fps | 71.19 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 62.40 fps | 65.13 % |
| ASUS EAH3870X2 | 51.60 fps | 53.86 % |
| ASUS ENGTS250 DK | 44.40 fps | 46.35 % |
| EVGA 8800 GT 512MB | 34.6 fps | 36.10 % |
| ASUS ENGT440 | 30.8 fps | 32.15 % |
| Zotac 9600 GT ECO | 29.7 fps | 31.00 % |
| ASUS ENGT430 | 24.4 fps | 25.47 % |
| ASUS EAH5550 | 23.9 fps | 24.95 % |
| more is better | ||
Discuss this article in the forums
[pagebreak]
Call of Juarez
| Call of Juarez, 1920 x 1080, high details, 4xSSAA | Average | Percent |
| AMD Radeon HD6970 CrossFire | 91.00 fps | 228.64 % |
| ASUS GTX 590 | 88.80 fps | 223.16 % |
| NVIDIA GTX 590 | 88.70 fps | 222.86 % |
| Palit GTX 580 SLI | 88.60 fps | 222.61 % |
| ASUS EAH6990 (880 MHz / 5'000 MHz) | 78.90 fps | 198.24 % |
| ASUS EAH6990 (830 MHz / 5'000 MHz) | 76.00 fps | 190.95 % |
| Zotac GTX480 SLI | 73.10 fps | 183.67 % |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 72.80 fps | 182.91 % |
| MSI GTX 580 Lightning | 56.10 fps | 140.95 % |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 53.60 fps | 134.67 % |
| ASUS ENGTX 580 | 52.40 fps | 131.65 % |
| EVGA GTX 460 EE SLI | 52.00 fps | 130.65 % |
| ASUS GTX 580 DirectCUII | 51.90 fps | 130.40 % |
| ASUS GTX 570 DirectCUII | 49.20 fps | 123.62 % |
| ASUS GTX 560 Ti DirectCUII Top | 48.70 fps | 122.36 % |
| nVidia GTX 295 SLI | 47.60 fps | 119.59 % |
| ASUS GTX 550 Ti DirectCU Top | 46.30 fps | 116.33 % |
| ASUS HD6970 DirectCUII | 46.20 fps | 116.08 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 43.20 fps | 108.54 % |
| ASUS EAH6970 2GB | 42.90 fps | 107.79 % |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 42.50 fps | 106.78 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 41.90 fps | 105.27 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 39.80 fps | 100.00 % |
| ASUS EAH6950 2GB | 39.50 fps | 99.25 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 285 SLI | 38.80 fps | 97.48 % |
| Zotac GTX 480 | 37.20 fps | 93.47 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 275 1792MB SLI | 38.00 fps | 95.47 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 34.60 fps | 86.93 % |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 34.20 fps | 85.92 % |
| nVidia GTX 295 | 33.20 fps | 83.42 % |
| ASUS EAH6850 DirectCU | 32.10 fps | 80.65 % |
| Gigabyte GTX460 Super Overclock | 32.10 fps | 80.65 % |
| EVGA GTX 460 EE | 30.70 fps | 77.14 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 28.50 fps | 71.60 % |
| ASUS EAH3870X2 | 24.50 fps | 61.56 % |
| ASUS ENGT440 | 21.90 fps | 55.03 % |
| EVGA 8800 GT 512MB | 18.20 fps | 45.73 % |
| ASUS ENGT430 | 16.60 fps | 41.71 % |
| Zotac 9600 GT ECO | 15.20 fps | 38.19 % |
| ASUS ENGTS250 DK | 13.90 fps | 34.92 % |
| ASUS EAH5550 | 12.30 fps | 30.90 % |
| more is better | ||
Far Cry 2
| Far Cry 2, 1920 x 1080, high details, 8xAA | Average | Percent |
| Palit GTX 580 SLI | 132.41 fps | 250.21 % |
| ASUS EAH6990 (880 MHz / 5'000 MHz) | 122.40 fps | 231.29 % |
| ASUS EAH6990 (830 MHz / 5'000 MHz) | 120.76 fps | 228.19 % |
| Zotac GTX480 SLI | 118.04 fps | 223.05 % |
| ASUS GTX 590 | 113.17 fps | 213.85 % |
| NVIDIA GTX 590 | 111.46 fps | 210.62 % |
| EVGA GTX 460 SLI | 107.77 fps | 203.65 % |
| MSI GTX 580 Lightning | 103.82 fps | 196.18 % |
| AMD Radeon HD6970 CrossFire | 98.50 fps | 186.13 % |
| ASUS ENGTX 580 | 98.36 fps | 185.86 % |
| ASUS GTX 580 DirectCUII | 95.27 fps | 180.03 % |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 91.87 fps | 173.60 % |
| ASUS GTX 570 DirectCUII | 88.83 fps | 167.86 % |
| nVidia GTX 295 SLI | 86.87 fps | 164.15 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 285 SLI | 84.49 fps | 159.65 % |
| ASUS GTX 560 Ti DirectCUII Top | 84.00 fps | 158.73 % |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 80.35 fps | 153.48 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 275 1792MB SLI | 79.51 fps | 150.24 % |
| ASUS EAH6970 2GB | 79.21 fps | 149.68 % |
| ASUS HD6970 DirectCUII | 77.54 fps | 146.52 % |
| Gigabyte GTX460 Super Overclock | 74.37 fps | 140.53 % |
| ASUS EAH6950 2GB | 71.40 fps | 134.92 % |
| Zotac GTX 480 | 68.87 fps | 118.80 % |
| nVidia GTX 295 | 66.72 fps | 126.08 % |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 64.51 fps | 121.90 % |
| EVGA GTX 460 EE | 60.66 fps | 114.63 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 59.21 fps | 111.88 % |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 55.66 fps | 105.17 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 54.99 fps | 103.91 % |
| ASUS EAH6850 DirectCU | 54.14 fps | 102.30 % |
| ASUS GTX 550 Ti DirectCU Top | 52.92 fps | 100.00 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 52.92 fps | 100.00 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 49.69 fps | 93.89 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 42.31 fps | 79.95 % |
| ASUS ENGT440 | 22.08 fps | 41.72 % |
| ASUS ENGTS250 DK | 17.95 fps | 33.92 % |
| ASUS ENGT430 | 17.07 fps | 32.26 % |
| Zotac 9600 GT ECO | 16.49 fps | 31.16 % |
| EVGA 8800 GT 512MB | 15.73 fps | 29.72 % |
| ASUS EAH5550 | 13.33 fps | 25.19 % |
| ASUS EAH3870X2 | 10.21 fps | 19.30 % |
| more is better | ||
Discuss this article in the forums
[pagebreak]
Conclusion
| General | + | - | |
| Until today the GTX 580
Lightning is the fastest GTX 580 graphics card we've ever tested. A
factory overclocking of 60 MHz makes clear that MSI definitely wanted
the performance crown for the fastest single GPU card out there on the
market. Furthermore MSI offers a huge lot of overclocking features with
the Lightning. For example there is the possibility to not only
manipulate GPU and memory voltages you can also change PLL voltages. MSI
even offers special BIOS versions via its live update service using
which which you can disable any cold bug issues. Another good thing about the GTX 580 Lightning is it's efficient dual slot cooler which allows low temperatures at a reasonable noise level. |
- 2D silent
- Features |
- 3D well audible | |
| Performance | + | - | |
| If you look at the performance numbers you'll quickly see that the GTX 580 Lightning is the fastest single GPU card we've ever tested. Therefore it doesn't matter at which benchmark you look. The GTX 580 Lightning is in almost every benchmark faster then the ASUS GTX 580 DirectCUII which used to carry the performance crown until today. | - Fastes Single-GPU-Card | ||
| Overclocking | + | - | |
| At this point we were able to reach 970 MHz GPU and 4'500 MHz memory clock speed quite effortlessly. Raising the GPU voltage by 0.93 volt has already been enough to overclock the card by 138 MHz regarding the GPU, which is quite a lot for an aircooled GTX 580. Furthermore this card was the first to break through the 7'000 points barrier by quite a margin. And last but not least there are all the different features which can be used for extreme overclocking like for example the possibility to change PLL voltages or the opportunity to download special BIOS in order to remove any cold bug issues. |
- 970 MHz GPU / 4'500 MHz Memory
- 16 Phasen PWM - Voltage regulation GPU / Memory / PLL - "Cold-Bug"-Fix |
||
| Recommendation | + | - | |
| If you should be looking for the fastest GTX 580 available which money can buy, the MSI GTX 580 Lightning will definitely be the right choice for you. Especially overclockers, extreme overclockers as well as high-end gamers will absolutely adore this card. |
-
High-End Gaming - Overclocking - Extreme-Overclocking |
||
| The MSI GTX 580 Lightning can be bought at Digitec to a price of CHF 549.- (est. EUR 422.-). | |||
Author: Marc Büchel, m.buechel@ocaholic.ch
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