Check this one out, 815MHz and the bonus is....3072MB of memory for high resolution http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500201Here is a review on it.... http://techreport.com/articles.x/20889I have the GTX 480 AMP version with only 1.5GB of memory, my card perform very well and stay vey cool....I'm thinking about getting the 580 AMP.....EDIT: I forgot....the price is very good for that kind of card.RE-EDIT: LOL this guy is running the GTX 3072MB in Quad SLI... http://www.youtube.c...h?v=KWZqS1wsGTc http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1588587

What resolution and AA are you running? there's a couple of threads in the videocards section where this is being discussed:http://forum.avsim.net/topic/334251-580-with-3gb-or-580-1534mb/

I'm thinking about upgrading my setup, right now I'm using one 63" wide screen.I'm also playing other games like Crysis 2 and as I understand new games will probably need more memory so this card will be upgrade proof for awile.

Alain,You'll like it. The 580 GTX in any form is a step-up from any 480 GTX. I doubt there is any real use for the extra memory in FTX, but like you said, it might come in handy elsewhere.Kind regards,

Alain,You'll like it. The 580 GTX in any form is a step-up from any 480 GTX. I doubt there is any real use for the extra memory in FTX, but like you said, it might come in handy elsewhere.Kind regards,

Hi! Stephen, I know this question is "kinda" hard to answer but if you had to put a number (%) on how much the 580 is better compare to the 480 what will you rate it at?

Hi, Alain and Stephen.Would the extra memory in the 580 serve a four monitor setup? Higher AA for example?Bjorn

Hi! Stephen, I know this question is "kinda" hard to answer but if you had to put a number (%) on how much the 580 is better compare to the 480 what will you rate it at?

Hi Alain,I have thought long and hard on the question and tried to measure the differences. There is not a single answer, but here is my best attempt after extensive testing:LOCKON FILES 480 GTX vs 580 GTXHope this helps. Kind regards,

Hi, Alain and Stephen.Would the extra memory in the 580 serve a four monitor setup? Higher AA for example?Bjorn

Hi Bjorn,As Bob Scott theorized, I think the 3072MB version might make a difference with extreme resolution settings of four monitors when under maximum stress in FSX gameplay. Other than that, I am not sure the positive differences will be apparent, but might indeed be a bit slower. It would be good to be able to test samples in order to find out.Kind regards,

But do you guys think that even with 3GB of VRAM the card will have the brute force to move a 3x screen resolution with high levels of AA? I'm guessing it won't

Hi, Alain and Stephen.Would the extra memory in the 580 serve a four monitor setup? Higher AA for example?Bjorn

Here is a part of the conclusion in one review for the Phantom card... http://www.fudzilla.com/reviews/item/21800-gainward-gtx-580-3gb-phantom-tested/21800-gainward-gtx-580-3gb-phantom-testedGainward GTX 580 3GB Phantom runs at slightly higher clocks that will not really affect performance. However, the card is still the fastest single-GPU graphics card around and will chew up any game with ease. If you need more than 1.5GB of memory then this is the card for you as it packs 3GB of GDDR5. Note however that the added memory won’t help much if you’re playing on one display, although some games might find some use for it at 2560x1600 (32x AA and 32x AF). This means that dual-display gaming will probably be the wisest application for the frame buffer.

But do you guys think that even with 3GB of VRAM the card will have the brute force to move a 3x screen resolution with high levels of AA? I'm guessing it won't

Tri-SLI is always an option.....:Big Grin: :Drooling:

Gainward GTX 580 3GB Phantom runs at slightly higher clocks that will not really affect performance. However, the card is still the fastest single-GPU graphics card around and will chew up any game with ease. If you need more than 1.5GB of memory then this is the card for you as it packs 3GB of GDDR5. Note however that the added memory won’t help much if you’re playing on one display, although some games might find some use for it at 2560x1600 (32x AA and 32x AF). This means that dual-display gaming will probably be the wisest application for the frame buffer.

I think we need to be careful when making statements like "will chew up any game with ease" as it's still quite possible for FSX to bring even a 5GHz machine running a 580 at 1GHz to it's knees with high-enough resolutions and aggressive-enough IQ settings. Also FWIW, the linked review is a few months old--from Feb 2011--there are already faster factory-overclocked variants of the 580 out now, the fastest of which are still 1536MB variants of the card. The water-cooled eVGA 580 Hydro Copper 2 Edition comes out of the box at 850/2100, or about 6% faster than Gainward's Phantom, and I have a friend running that card at a smidge over 1000 MHz.@Dario--I think even the fastest single 580 at triple-monitor resolutions is going to be at the ragged edge of acceptable performance at best. Were I to go for a triple-monitor configuration, I think multi-GPU would offer the best probability of getting acceptable performance. The other issue with single-580 triple-monitor configs is you are limited to TH2GO, which has a bottleneck due to the max bandwidth attainable on the cable between the video card and TH2GO unit. If you want to run at a 60Hz refresh rate, you have to use DisplayPort monitors (or buy three adapters at $100 a crack) and then you're limited to 3x1680x1050 resolution. 3x1920x1080 is possible (again on the displayport version only), and then only at a reduced refresh rate (50Hz if I recall correctly) which isn't an option available on a lot of monitors.@Bjorn--if I were building a 3+ monitor configuration, I'd probably go with the 3GB boards just to be safe. That said, remember that the workload of video processing goes up as the square of the increase in display matrix size, so it's quite possible that those advanced AA/AF modes that would take advantage of the added memory might end up causing unacceptable performance hits anyway.

Yeah Bob, I completely agree if I was to go with a GTX 580 SLI I would not skimp and would definitely get the 3GB version just in case. I've been thinking about getting a second 480 to play with SLI myself (4xSGSS?), but if there's a GPU you don't want to go dual with, it's this GTX480, especially in a mid tower like mine. Probably the best thing I can do is to wait for Kepler. Alain, whatever you do, keep us posted!

I think we need to be careful when making statements like "will chew up any game with ease" as it's still quite possible for FSX to bring even a 5GHz machine running a 580 at 1GHz to it's knees with high-enough resolutions and aggressive-enough IQ settings. Also FWIW, the linked review is a few months old--from Feb 2011--there are already faster factory-overclocked variants of the 580 out now, the fastest of which are still 1536MB variants of the card. The water-cooled eVGA 580 Hydro Copper 2 Edition comes out of the box at 850/2100, or about 6% faster than Gainward's Phantom, and I have a friend running that card at a smidge over 1000 MHz.@Dario--I think even the fastest single 580 at triple-monitor resolutions is going to be at the ragged edge of acceptable performance at best. Were I to go for a triple-monitor configuration, I think multi-GPU would offer the best probability of getting acceptable performance. The other issue with single-580 triple-monitor configs is you are limited to TH2GO, which has a bottleneck due to the max bandwidth attainable on the cable between the video card and TH2GO unit. If you want to run at a 60Hz refresh rate, you have to use DisplayPort monitors (or buy three adapters at $100 a crack) and then you're limited to 3x1680x1050 resolution. 3x1920x1080 is possible (again on the displayport version only), and then only at a reduced refresh rate (50Hz if I recall correctly) which isn't an option available on a lot of monitors.@Bjorn--if I were building a 3+ monitor configuration, I'd probably go with the 3GB boards just to be safe. That said, remember that the workload of video processing goes up as the square of the increase in display matrix size, so it's quite possible that those advanced AA/AF modes that would take advantage of the added memory might end up causing unacceptable performance hits anyway.

Some Real handy help in your post Bob. I'm about to build a new PC after suffering for years with an old 8600GT! (which amazingly produces a good image on a 24inch monitor) so moving to a second monitor (with a third in dreamland still!) after reading your post, to keep acceptable framerates, refresh rates and good performance going for a dedicated card to each monitor would be the way to go it seems.Cheers,David