The Reference 580gtx thread

[Borsch]

Seeing that quite few people jumped on the 199 580 deal (me being one of them) I thought I'd create a thread about it. Other people who already own/ed a refernce 580 are also very welcome to post here

I'm still about two hours form taking delivery of my card, so first thing I'd like to ask is - what's the process of getting rid of my 460gtx from the system (bearing in mind my mobo doesn't have inbuilt video port, I need to uninstall and clean 460 drivers with it still plugged in). Do I uninstall the card from Device Manager, reboot into safe mode and then clean with Drive Cleaner with 460 still being physically plugged in?

Also I'd like to hear how the reference 580 with its "vapour chamber" cooler compares to other cards noise wise- I realise that it will be much noisier than my 460, but how is it in relation to other cards that have about the same (or more) performance as the 580 (I know that 680 is quiet, but the others?)

OC tips sharing would be cool as well

 

[Borsch]

Card arrived exactly on time - 10/10 to OCUK and DPD courier service!


I've uninstalled the old card, plugged the new one, intslled drivers with "fresh install" ticked, works great.

The noise at idle is near enough indistinguishable from my DirectCuII 460gtx - very quiet, at load it is more noisy than the 460, but there is not that much in it. If I remember correctly, my old 8800gts 512mb sounded about the same volume wise. I do not hear the fan spinning when 580 is at full load, but more like air rushing out of the case- just the wind noise, there is no mechanical noise. But its perfectly livable with, I'm not even considering aftermarket coolers/water etc (well, it would defeat the point of buying a £199 card only to get a cooler that would take it to £250; but secondly, I've lived very happily with my 8800gts, and this one is not noisier at all).

HEaven score (stock- not touched the OCing yet, no Lucid used to bump the score up):



Verdict: EXTREMELY happy with the service and the card! Thanks Gibbo!

 

[Borsch]

I received my 580 this afternoon. Just installed it now after cleaning my case and doing some needed cable management.

A bit disappointed with the card to be honest. Not with the performance (still haven't played any games) but the I/O bracket is bent out of shape at the top! It's impossible to fasten it in the PCI slot with my case screws. It seems pretty sturdy but I'm a bit worried.

Sorry to hear that On mine the i/o bracket was a bit of a tight fit as well, but fit without too much problem in he end -I secured it with one screw for now. Is yours visibly bent?

Card idles at 41C right - is that ok? Should I be worried about changing thermal paste on a referb card? It looks very clean - no dust or anything.

Hi Borsch.

Nice picture in post #3 but unfortunately it's too big.

Please remove it and either upload an image no greater than 1024 pixels wide or just put a link to your original image.

Done, my apologies

 

[Borsch]

Ok, bumped up just the core frequency to 825Mhz, everything else is stock. Temps went up couple of degrees (edit no they didn't -still around 85C when benching Heaven).

Heaven now (No Lucid again, I never even had it installed):



Gaming temps around 70C.

I'm very glad that I got this card and not 7850

 

[Borsch]

Hmm, my fan idles at 40%, not 45. Not sure about maximum though. My bios is 70.10.17.00.52.

 

[Borsch]

I dont think its to do with refurb cards as I've had new ones where the bracket does not fit flush to the case and have to bend it a little.
I think its partly to do with how much your motherboard bowes. Some CPU coolers can cause this.

Interesting! Like I said mine was also quite tight (more so than my previous card), but I did fit a big CPU cooler recently, so yeah, you may well be right.

Why is there an old voodoo card for size comparison there?!?!

Does anyone have an OC guide for reference 580? Just what sort of Core/memory range it usually clocks to and at how many volts.

 

[Borsch]

Ok, OCed the card slightly more to 855/2175 (at 1050mV). Temps did NOT change at all!

Heaven score with temperature reading:

 

[Borsch]

What's with the bent I/O epidemic? Just what happened to those cards prior to being refurbished? Mind boggles

 

[Borsch]

Mine was only stable at about 810core on stock voltage. Will do 865 on 1.065v- happy with that- about 75C in metro with fans at 70%. Acceptable noise imo

Do a Heaven bench, I'd be interesting to compare the scores.

I just rerun heaven at same settings as yesterday, but without internet browser in the background

 

[Borsch]

Sorry, been busy the last few days, only now got some time to do a bit more tweaking/OCing...

Well, the hardest I can push my 580 is this:



Anything above 870Mhz and no matter what volts I apply, it crashes at some point in Heaven. Maybe its my ageing PSU that cant supply enough clean power for OC- not sure. Temps never go above 86C regardless of voltage - even at 1.1V (with fan on about 66% in auto setting). So there we are

 

[Borsch]

@ Borsch,

Your sigs out of date

Also, when its at 86c and 66% fan speed, how noisy are you finding it?

Yeah, I know

I find it okayish/tolerable. Yeah, its more noisy than the DirectCu 460 when at load, but around the same as 8800gts 512mb that I had and loved to bits Unlike with the 8800 though I do not hear the actual fan spinning, just the jet of air wooshing through the vapour chamber of the 580.

The card is brilliant performance wise - about double of my 460. Zero problems with games/drivers/etc. Works like clockwork. Here is my OCed 460 Heaven score:
gtx460 768Mb @ 850Mhz/2150Mhz (stock volts)



7850 with its bigger VRAM is gnawing away at my mind, but Bradmax57 switched from his heavily OCed 7850 to 580 (to 670 lol) as he said that 7850 just wasnt smooth in BF3 compared to 580 he previously had. So yeah...

 

[Borsch]

Yeah, I think I'll stick with the 580. I think It still does not run my fav games (Rise oF FLight and IL2:CLOD) totally smoothly at very highest settings/supersampling, but CLOD is bugged to hell and back anyway and RoF looks as good without supersampling (for which I'd need a 680/7970 anyway - and that's too much for one graphical feature)...