Now that the 680s are out, I see 580s are finally reducing its price. Having currently a 470 (along with a 2600k and 8 Gigs of RAM), would I get a noticeable improvement, both performance and image quality wise, from getting a 580?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Jorge

Despite FSX being a CPU hog, I saw a great performance increase when I bought my EVGA GTX580.

 

However, if you have a 470 now, I wouldn't think you would see anything that spectacular.

I went from the GTX470 to the 580 and saw no perfromance increase whatsoever. However the 580 handles AA and filtering better, whether you think that justifies the increase in cost is open for debate.

Now that the 680s are out, I see 580s are finally reducing its price. Having currently a 470 (along with a 2600k and 8 Gigs of RAM), would I get a noticeable improvement, both performance and image quality wise, from getting a 580?

 

Click on the 480 vs 580 test link in my signature, or this:

 

http://www.lockonfiles.com/index.php/topic/33485-480-gtx-vs-580-gtx-review/

 

Kind regards,

Click on the 480 vs 580 test link in my signature, or this:

 

http://www.lockonfil...580-gtx-review/

 

Kind regards,

 

Hey Stephen, that is one fantastic review matey. You deserve a pat on the back for the amount of work you obviously put into that. I am utterly confused though. From some of the results you posted there appears to be unarguable performance benefits in OCing the GPU and in particular the 580, which I know you are an ardent supporter of. However, my experience has shown quite the opposite. I admit, I haven't gone anywhere near the extent of testing that you have, but I nevertheless did a comprehensive before and after analysis of a pretty hard OC to the 580 and my results showed nothing more than maybe a 2-3% increase in performance at best! Since then I am running my 580 at stock. So my question is, how come? Don't get me wrong, I'm not questioning your results, far from it, but I'd just ike you to perhaps suggest where I may be going amiss.

Hi Howard,

 

Good to speak with you again. I suggest you carefully read the entire test release, including the preamble, the systematic methodology chosen and the onset assumptions rational. Otherwise it would be easy to misread the individual test component results and jump to conclusions unsupported by the weighed findings. Please pay particular attention to the variances of GPU settings and the resultant scaled differences in measured output. The overall evidence indicated consistent measurable performance increases.

 

Howard, as you know there is almost an infinite number of ways to subjectively observe comparative analytical results. The method adopted in this particular comparative analysis was chosen so that it could objectively follow known parameters established from my previously published FSX hardware tests, with appropriate adjustments. I was careful to run the test samples a number of times to certify clinical repeatability and to account for spikes and free falls within the individual test suites.

 

The short answer to the question asked by the OP, is yes, it is worth going from the 480 GTX to the 580 GTX for FSX, if the rest of the system can feed and process the GPU's output adequately. The 580 GTX (or any GPU for that matter), will be able to rise to the highest common denominator of system performance. Otherwise performance will drop to the lowest system common denominator, thereby restricting the GPU output which will result in little to no performance enhancement realized.

 

Kind regards.

Stephen, thanks a lot for the link.

 

In fact, going from a 470 I understand I'll get a little more improvement than in the case of a 480 to 580 swap. And my specs are almost a copy of yours (a 2600K OC to 4.8GHz), so I think I'll take the plunge and upgrade as soon as there is stock in my computer shop.

 

Not that my performance is bad, but I like to get as good visuals as I can, and that means cranking up the AA settings as much as possible.

 

Thanks a lot for the answers, much appreciated.

 

Jorge

Jorge the physical improvements you will see in going from a 470 to a 580 will be lower operating temps, lower power usage due to the improved Fermi architecture.

Great review Stephen.

Regards

PeterH

I went from the GTX470 to the 580 and saw no perfromance increase whatsoever. However the 580 handles AA and filtering better, whether you think that justifies the increase in cost is open for debate.

 

My exact finding going from a 470 to a 580. increase in AA and that is about it.