Conclusion

Gainward announced two GTX 580 cards – one based on reference clocks and the other factory overclocked to 805MHz for the GPU and 1050MHz for the memory (4200MHz effectively)

The factory overclock resulted in about 4.5% higher performance, which is nice, but reference clocked GTX 580 cards can already handle more demanding games. Gainward decided to stick with reference cooling although, as we said earlier, we would’ve preferred to have seen Gainward’s non-reference solution. The reference cooler is not quiet, but it isn’t what we’d call very loud, which coupled with improved performance is the main difference when comparing it to the GTX 480.

GTX 580 is a DirectX 11 card with 1536MB of GDDR5 memory, meaning you’re pretty much set for future games. Unfortunately, you won’t find a game in the box but Gainward ships the mini-HDMI-to-HDMI cable which will surely come in handy. It's currently pretty hard to get your mitts on this card but you can find it starting from €499, here.

If you’re looking to treat yourself to a GTX 580 then Gainward’s GTX 580 Golden Sample is definitely a good choice as it definitely packs a mean punch. That being said, it might be wise to keep the money in your pocket until the second half of December when Radeon 6900 series hits the shelves, if for nothing else then for the price adjustments.