I've got a EVGA GTX580 SC and its the quietest card I have had in years, the 285 I had before it was very loud, this 580 is barely audible most of the time in intensive GPU games, so in FSX its mostly silent, I certainly cant hear it over my 3 Apache Black radiator fans. 80+ degrees is normal for a 580 GTX and nothing to worry about, ATi 4870s used to idle at 80 and top out at around 105 degrees, now they were hot and noisy as hell.

Now you can really see how much effect a good ventilated case has. I've got an Antec 902, it's got 2 120 mm intakes on the front, 1 200 mm and 1 1400 mm excaust fan on the top and back. The hottest I've seen my GTX 580 in heavy clouds is around 65C, and I have the reference design. The Corsair cases however, don't have great airflow and that's why it runs hotter. But the Antec cases haven't got a very great design in terms HDD cages, and cable management, Corsair is great on this. It just depends on what you want. I think cooling is more important, cuz I won't be looking at the wires anyway!

Note I mentioned that in GPU intensive programs I would get 80 + degrees, FSX is the least GPU intensive program I ever use on the 580GTX, I don't see over 62 to 65 degrees from the GPU in FSX. My case is a Corsair D800 with a 3x120mm radiator and fans in the top for the CPU water loop, I used to have a GPU in the loop too but that failed and was replaced under warranty with an aircooled 580 instead because I couldnt be bothered ripping the loop apart everytime a component failed. There are another 4x140mm case fans besides the 3 rad fans, my case has tremendous quiet airflow. The CPU under 100% load for 60 minutes @4.6ghz tops out at 70c but is usually in the mid 60's as an average, it idles at a little over room temperature, so around 28 to 30 degrees.

Is your 580 overclocked please Andy? I mean beyond factory OC. And do you have a custom fan profile? Just to know what to expect

No its default clock and default fan profile, I never bother overclocking a GPU, it wont make much difference to FSX anyway.

it wont make much difference to FSX anyway

and can add spikes/artifacts as well...I've tried my 580 all the way up to 850/1600 and had it stable in other games and apps, but it just made FSX feel a bit shaky and unstable.

 

When I was changing rigs at the end of last week, I stuck a 460 in my "old" PC as I'd nicked the 580 to go into the new one..FSX ran pretty much damn near as well as it did with the 580..perhaps a bit more pan-jerk but in terms of fluidity, not a lot in it..having said that I am a hardware slave and will buy whatever I can when I can (and then do the equivalent of sticking my fingers down my throat

Obv any other games would benefit hugely from a 680, and P3d v2.0 will, too no doubt. £460 on the bay of E. No thanks.

 

Going for a "retired" 580 to SLI up, although I bet that doesn't really help FSX either, does it? Never had the cash to go SLI..This new board comes with 4x PCI-e16 slots and a 4-way SLI bracket..Imagine! :Nerd:

 

jake

SLI will actually make FSX run worse not better. You could use 2 580's with three monitors e.g. NVidia Surround. That's the only thing that made me even consider a 680 at first, the ability to run 3 monitors off one card, you need 2 cards to do that with any previous NV GPU. Now I know that the 680 isn't an improvement FPS wise in FSX it's off my radar.

If I may weigh in, I completely agree with Word Not Allowed when it comes to the 580 vs 680. He and I have spent about a week testing both and found they perform almost identical in FSX which I expected all along.

 

The 680 originally replaced my XFX 7950 DD which suffered from horrid AMD drivers but now sits in the main rig instead of the 580. Unfortunately I sold the 580 before I could test it against the 680 in depth.

 

Flying my typical PDX to KBFI route; FSX looks and for the most part performs identical to my now sold 580. As for microstutters, no it does not have more or less stutters than the 580. Again the cards are almost identical.

 

As Word Not Allowed said, as of now moving from the 580 to the 680 won't give the end user any FSX performance upgrades. Even when the drivers mature I doubt it will add more than 1 or 2 FPS since none of the GPU manu's tweak drivers for FSX any longer.

 

Now where the 680 will benefit is in other games. I understand this is predominantly a FS forum but when it comes to other games the 680 is a beast even compared to the 580. DCS A-10 and BF3 are prime examples and the 680 runs incredibly fast even with stock speeds/boost at 1080p.

 

For example in A-10 (max settings no mirrors) on a heavy loaded online mission I would routinely see FPS drop into the high 20's and 30's with the 580. This is normally fine at cruise but not on gun runs in the mountains. The 680 however rarely drops from the locked 60 fps. Drops do occur when panning around the cockpit but I have never seen the counter go below 54. This is a massive improvement IMO.

 

BF3 just sits at 60 and only drops to mid 50's on Metro with 64 players. The 580 would be in the 30's to 40's.

 

At max load/clocks and max stable boost offset (132% volts/200 gpu /500 mem) the card sits around 65 degrees and with more aggressive fans it sits in the low 50's.

 

 

Here is the only advice I can give on to purchase a 680 or not.

 

New rig FSX only - 580 or 680 depends on budget. 680 is $100 more right now on Newegg.

Current rig FSX only - If you have a 580 now then no. If you have a mid-range or AMD it is a toss up again. Is the extra $100 worth it over the 580?

 

New rig FSX with other sims/games (BF3, A-10, Batman AC, Borderlands 2, etc) - Yes.

Current rig FSX with other sims/games (BF3, A-10, Batman AC, Borderlands 2, etc) - Again yes. Even from the 7950 to 680 I saw a noticeable improvement.

 

This of course is based on current retail pricing and no specials. Obviously if you can get a 580 or pair of 580's dirt cheap do that.

 

As usual it all depends on the end users budget. If you have a mid-range budget of course the 680 won't be an viable option. If you have a high-end budget the 680 is a very nice card and worthy of a serious look over the 79XX and 5XX.

 

Hope that helps.

 

That's the only thing that made me even consider a 680 at first, the ability to run 3 monitors off one card, you need 2 cards to do that with any previous NV GPU.

 

There are 5XX multi-display cards on the market. Galaxy has a line including the 580 but unfortunately those cards are more than the 680 at this point.

 

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/01/02/galaxy_mdt_geforce_gtx_580_video_card_review/1

The Corsair cases however, don't have great airflow and that's why it runs hotter.

 

Huh? My Corsair 400R has 2 120MM front intakes, a bottom 140MM intake, 2 side 140MM intakes, and 3 120MM exhaust..... My case has plenty of case ventilation.

 

Also, you have to remember that there are many factors to temps, different ambient temps, different GPUs, and GPU voltage. I wouldn't ever stereotype an entire brand as bad just because one product might be flawed.... Corsair in general has some awesome products and so does Antec. They both also have there bad cases...

Good comparison...

If I may weigh in, I completely agree with Word Not Allowed when it comes to the 580 vs 680. He and I have spent about a week testing both and found they perform almost identical in FSX which I expected all along.

 

John thanks a lot for your info, especially about the microstutter part. However, due to Word Not Allowed's new tweak, microstutters are not that much of a problem anymore.

 

I do play other games too, cuz I'm also an ambitious racing simmer, so I'm gonna buy RFactor 2 and Project C.A.R.S too. In that case a GTX 680 will be awesome! So my conclusion is that I should go with a 680.

The current 580 I have is only borrowed from a friend of mine, at the moment I do not actually own a graphics card.

 

One thing I'm still really concerned about though, is that Word Not Allowed said, that the 680 MIGHT be a downgrade in FSX compared to the 580. That's just something I'm worried about. It might be other factors, perhaps there are some small differences in their systems, which there are, they both have two different CPUs. But if you are sure that the 580 is exactly identical in FPS, microstuttering then I'm convinced. What about OOM errors or other problems you had with the card in FSX?

 

Huh? My Corsair 400R has 2 120MM front intakes, a bottom 140MM intake, 2 side 140MM intakes, and 3 120MM exhaust..... My case has plenty of case ventilation.

 

Also, you have to remember that there are many factors to temps, different ambient temps, different GPUs, and GPU voltage. I wouldn't ever stereotype an entire brand as bad just because one product might be flawed.... Corsair in general has some awesome products and so does Antec. They both also have there bad cases...

 

I agree with you. Corsair makes some great products, I love my RAM, their PSUs, CPU coolers and keyboards are great! And their cases have a very good design in terms of HDD caging and wire management. However, the 800D only has one intake fan and therefore I just think it's not that great. But I could be wrong though....

However, the 800D only has one intake fan and therefore I just think it's not that great.

 

It doesn't if you take the rear case fan off and reverse its direction of flow, that fan now blows cool air across the MOSFETS around the CPU and towards the RAM, it works brilliantly as you can see from the temps I posted earlier. The 800D was designed with watercooling in mind. As a conventional air cooled system it is a bit of a compromise.

 

EDIT: I put a cheap Lian Li 140mm fan filter on the outside of the rear case fan I reversed to stop it blowing dust into the case.

 

I agree with you. Corsair makes some great products, I love my RAM, their PSUs, CPU coolers and keyboards are great! And their cases have a very good design in terms of HDD caging and wire management. However, the 800D only has one intake fan and therefore I just think it's not that great. But I could be wrong though....

You are completely overlooking my point. You are calling Corsair cases bad because one case that they provide has bad airflow. I could very easily say the same about the Antec cases. You can't go around calling businesses bad just because they released one sub-par product. I could do the very same for nearly every corporation in the world. LOL

 

Now you can really see how much effect a good ventilated case has. I've got an Antec 902, it's got 2 120 mm intakes on the front, 1 200 mm and 1 1400 mm excaust fan on the top and back. The hottest I've seen my GTX 580 in heavy clouds is around 65C, and I have the reference design. The Corsair cases however, don't have great airflow and that's why it runs hotter. But the Antec cases haven't got a very great design in terms HDD cages, and cable management, Corsair is great on this. It just depends on what you want. I think cooling is more important, cuz I won't be looking at the wires anyway!

I wouldn't ever stereotype an entire brand as bad just because one product might be flawed.... Corsair in general has some awesome products and so does Antec.

What about OOM errors or other problems you had with the card in FSX?

 

No issues in FSX. To date only issue was a black screen in BF3 but that was from over aggressive boost settings.

 

The settings tested fine in stress testing but BF caused it to black screen on hard use. This is the only annoying thing about overclocking the 680. You can find a boost that works amazing on FSX but is too aggressive in BF3. Nice thing is you just set boost profiles.

 

IE: Profile 1 is for FSX at 132%, 250gpu, 650mem.

Profile 2 is BF3 at 132%, 177, 475.

Looks like the GTX680's little brother is due next month.

 

Kyle Bennett editor at HardOCP posted yesterday the 670 is due next month then NV posted on their FB "Its Coming" (http://www.facebook.com/NVIDIAGeForce) with no further explanation.

 

I would highly doubt it would be a 690 or high performing card than the 680 since the 680 is still selling out all over at $499. Since NV doesn't have a next gen mid-range card to compete against AMD it only makes sense it would be a mid-range.

 

Kyle's exact post was:

"GTX 670 next month according to sources at AMD."

 

When asked about the sources at AMD Kyle just responded with IP stops at the international dateline.

 

I like this time of year! :Big Grin: