• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

GTX 580 Matrix Platinum, GTX 590 or 7950/7970

tobsmonster2

tobsmonster2

tobsmonster2

Associate
Joined
6 May 2011
Posts
248
Location
London
I've been offered a GTX 590 for a little under 300 quid, but I'm wondering if going for a more recent card in that price range would be a better bet?

I understand in terms of raw power the 590 should be a bit better than anything save for the best of the newest generation (Titan, 690, 7990 which are all out of my price range), but I'm also aware that in these days of high resolution DX11 games raw power isn't everything and VRAM is something to consider. Will a 590's 1.5GB be enough to power through games for the next year?

To complicate things further I've got a mate who'd let me have his 580 Matrix Platinum (which I'm told clocks past 1GHz) for £200 :(.

I'm quite attracted to the idea of owning a beast like a GTX 590, and the 580 Matrix would look sooo great in my build (and a 1GHz clock wouldn't hurt things either :p), but if it were your money what would you do?

  • Which ever card I choose will be going into a build I'm planning, so I'm not upgrading from anything at the mo.
  • Power draw and heat aren't issues for me, but noise could be (I've heard 590's are pretty quite and I don't imagine the Asus would make much noise. At my max budget I'll probably only be able to afford a reference 7970).
  • I'll be gaming at 1080P for the forseeable future, if anything I'll upgrade to a 120Hz panel, but no eyefinity or triple screens for me :).
  • My build is MATX so I'm not looking at SLI/Crossfire if I can avoid it!
 
What Power Supply do you have?

I would say to get a 7950/70. You can overclock them a fair bit. The 590 will be faster, but it will consume a lot more power and will most likely be a fair bit louder.
 
I'd got with either the 590 or the 7950, the 580 is too expensive @£200 (£30 more and you get a much faster 7950) and the 7970 isn't really worth paying the premium over the 7950 as they're at best 5% quicker.

1.5Gb shouldn't be a problem @1080 unless you play Skyrim modded to high heaven, power draw would be something to look at though...a 590 pulls a silly 450w+ iirc.
 
Wait for just under 300 quid you can have a 590? You know for 300 quid odd you can have a 670? Even if it is a reference cooled one or one of the smaller PCB ones. o.O The main determining factor is CUDA, do you need it? :p
 
SoundDoctor said:
What Power Supply do you have?

I would say to get a 7950/70. You can overclock them a fair bit. The 590 will be faster, but it will consume a lot more power and will most likely be a fair bit louder.
Click to expand...

As mentioned power isn't an issue. I could probably get away with running two 590 (AX 1200W).

@Tonester0011
Not sure how accurate that is. Looking at reviews it seems the 7950 (stock) is just behind a regular GTX 580. With the Matrix clocked at or near 1GHz I don't imagine there'd be much between the two?

@tommybhoy
Haha, thanks for the recommendation but that is probably one of the ugliest models I've ever seen :p. Can't question the cool and quite spec though, I've only heard good about HIS IceQ cards.

The more I think about it, I feel I'm leaning more toward the 580. That Matrix cooler is absolutely beautiful :).
 
tobsmonster2 said:
@Tonester0011
Not sure how accurate that is. Looking at reviews it seems the 7950 (stock) is just behind a regular GTX 580. With the Matrix clocked at or near 1GHz I don't imagine there'd be much between the two?
Click to expand...

Probably old drivers with pitiful 800core clock.
Most 7950s seem to go northwards of 1100 core 1500 memory, stable 24/7 i might add, whereas that 580 i doubt at 1ghz is for anything other than benchmarking.

The matrix is a nice card, overpriced @£200 though, even if it does bench high :)
 
tobsmonster2 said:
@tommybhoy
Haha, thanks for the recommendation but that is probably one of the ugliest models I've ever seen :p. Can't question the cool and quite spec though, I've only heard good about HIS IceQ cards.

The more I think about it, I feel I'm leaning more toward the 580. That Matrix cooler is absolutely beautiful :).
Click to expand...

It isn't the best to look at by far, but alas I don't have a case window and can't seem to help but watch the fluidity of frames passing by on the screen rather than looking at a piece of metal and plastic sitting static on the floor beside my feet.:D

£200 for a used 580 is a bump, regardless the make, it's outdated and gimped by it's vram, a 7950 clocked@1200MHz will sail past it.:p
 
tommybhoy said:
£200 for a used 580 is a bump, regardless the make, it's outdated and gimped by it's vram, a 7950 clocked@1200MHz will sail past it.:p
Click to expand...

No it isn't. It's capable of running the settings which are matched to its 1.5GB of VRAM.

590 is different as it's 2 GPUs it has the GPU grunt to shift the higher settings which would allow it to exceed 1.5GB and at otherwise decent frame rate. I wouldn't recommend one of those nowadays. I wouldn't necessarily recommend a 580 either unless it's super cheap... as there's better options for the same money.

It doesn't mean anything if you exceed 1.5GB when getting 15 FPS anyway.
 
If you would chose a GTX 580 over a 7950 for the same money then your looking at the wrong reviews or getting the wrong information.

Some reviews out there are done on very early dodgy drivers and with the hugely under clocked 800Mhz early reference 7950's

7950's clock to 1100 / 1150 day in day out, and the later 7950's run at 975Mhz out of the box.

The 7870 is a little faster, the 7870 Tahiti LE is a lot faster and at normal clocks the 7950 blows it out of the water by 30 to 40%. the 7950 is every bit as fast as the GTX 670.
 
Last edited:
As the owner of 2 GTX 590s I would not recommend them to anyone, they are nice cards running at stock but that is the problem. The GTX 590 has got to be the worse card in history for overclocking, if you want to try it make sure you have a fire extinguisher handy.

Performance wise the GTX 590 is about equal to an overclocked GTX 680/HD 7970 or in other words you might as well buy one of those instead with the extra vram to boot.

I just looked on the Heaven 4 bench, two GTX 590s in quad sli scores the same as a single overclocked GTX 690.

Grab a HD 7950 and save some money.
 
Ollie1132 said:
When you say "just under" how close to 300 are you looking at if you don't mind me asking? xD
Click to expand...

£275 for the 590 which means it'll only cost a *little* more than the 580, but with better than 680 performance.

If all was right with the world I'd just buy both, rip off the Matrix's cooler & backplate and create the sexiest GTX 590.

@tommybhoy & humbug
1100/1200 MHz represents a 300-400MHz overclock on the 7950 which is about the same overclock I *could* expect to see on the 580 Matrix. Granted the 7950 would likely do it with less heat in my case, but it'd be interested to see how things lined up performance wise.

@Kaapstad
That's a good point. In gaming benchmarks the 590 seems to still pull ahead of the more expensive 680. Beside that, the 670/680 have never really floated my boat. Knowing I'd paid so much for a mid range card would irk me some.

The 7970 seems to be doing great with more recent drivers however and the price isn't too bad either, but I imagine I'd need to forfeit an arm and both legs to get the Matrix version :). Is there a particular model you'd recommend?
 
Last edited:
You won't see 300-400 MHz on a 580 lol. Not before it spontaneously combusts anyway.

As above the 7950 was faster than the 580 even on release. Now it's a good, good deal faster.
 
tobsmonster2 said:
£275 for the 590 which means it'll only cost a *little* more than the 580, but with better than 680 performance.

If all was right with the world I'd just buy both, rip off the Matrix's cooler & backplate and create the sexiest GTX 590.
Click to expand...

Mate 24 quid more for the cheapest 670.. may as well get that or a 7950.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom