XFX Geforce 8800 GTS 320MB is as fast as billyo

Product: XFX GeForce 8800 GTS 580M XXX, 320MB GDDR3
Website: http://www.xfxforce.com/
System Requirements: Intel Pentium 4, AMD Athlon or compatible CPU
A minimum of 256MB system memory
A minimum 400W system power supply with PCI-Express
connector or two unused HDD power connectors available.
CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive
Requires a PCI Express compliant motherboard
Requires an available PCI Express slot
Windows Vista/XP/2000/XP 64
Price: €325.00

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XFX'S GEFORCE 8800 GTS 320MB looks like being the fastest card on market. It is clocked to amazing 580MHz core and 1800 MHz and that is much faster than the reference 500MHz for the core and 1600MHz memory. It is faster than any card including EVGA's and Gainward's but we were informed that anything faster than 560MHz might result in a lot of RMA. XFX took a different approach this time. The company has three different modes.

We tested the fastest XFX GeForce 8800 GTS 580M XXX, 320MB GDDR3 clocked at 580/1800MHz, the second in line is XFX GeForce 8800 GTS 560M Extreme, 320MB GDDR3, clocked at 560 MHz and 1700 MHz while the slowest and the cheapest XFX GeForce 8800 GTS 500M, 320MB GDDR3 works at referent 500 MHz core and 1600 MHz memory. The slowest is at the same time the cheapest and will cost only €268.

XFX GeForce 8800 GTS 580M XXX, 320MB GDDR3 card

All of the cards have 20 ROPs and the memory works in quite odd 320-bit mode. The card supports HDCP and have dual DVI. It is at the moment the cheapest DirectX 10 card. It supports Shader model 4.0 and it now comes with fully functional DirectX 10 WHQL drivers. You still need to make an effort and to get them from Nvidia's site.

The rather large box includes Ghost recon full game, a driver CD, two DVI dongles, Svideo to RGB and Svideo cable.

XFX GeForce 8800 GTS 580M XXX box

We compared this card to an Nvidia reference card and versus an Nvidia card overclocked to 550MHz and 1760MHz core.

Benchmarketing
We used:
Intel Core 2 Extreme E6800, 2x 2.93GHz, 266MHz FSB, 4MB Cache
Corsair Dominator TWIN2X1024-8500 at 5-5-5-15 at 1066 MHz
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 400GB SATA NCQ hard drive
Akasa EVO AK 922 Blue Athlon 64/X2/FX cooler and Intel CPU's
Silverstone DA750W modular PSU

Composite Figures 3Dmark 03	3DMark 03	Game2	Game3	Game4
Reference 8800GTS 500/1600MHz 320MB	25147	190.1	150.9	152.0
XFX 8800GTS 580/1800MHz 320MB	28259	232.6	174.9	173.5
Nvidia 8800GTS 550/1760MHz 640MB OC	27345	208.9	165.0	164.7
?	?	?	?	?
Composite Figures 3Dmark 03	Single Texturinng	Multi Textur.	Vertex Shader	Pixel Shader 2.0
Reference 8800GTS 320 500/1600MHz	5010.5	11671.9	90.3	412.5
XFX 8800GTS 580/1800MHz 320MB	5716.5	13323.8	115.4	476.3
Nvidia 8800GTS 550/1760MHz 640MB OC	5368.8	12512.4	98.4	456.4
?	?	?	?	?
Composite Figures 3Dmark 05	3DMark 05	Game1	Game2	Game3
Reference 8800GTS 320 500/1600MHz	14905	62.8	43.2	78.0
XFX 8800GTS 580/1800MHz 320MB	16389	63.7	48.8	91.4
Nvidia 8800GTS 550/1760MHz 640MB OC	15722	63.4	46.5	84.4
?	?	?	?	?
Composite Figures 3Dmark 05	Single Texturinng	Multi Textur.	Pixel Shader	VS/VS complex
Reference 8800GTS 320 500/1600MHz	5057.3	11651.0	361.5	121.9/95.0
XFX 8800GTS 580/1800MHz 320MB	5775.6	13365.1	469.0	138.9/109.1
Nvidia 8800GTS 550/1760MHz 640MB OC	5419.2	12476.0	396.3	131.0/101.8
?	?	?	?	?
Composite Figures 3Dmark 06	3DMark 06	?	?
Reference 8800GTS 320 500/1600MHz	8435	?	?	?
XFX 8800GTS 580/1800MHz 320MB	9756	?	?	?
Nvidia 8800GTS 550/1760MHz 640MB OC	9060	?	?	?
?	?	?	?	?
SM2.0 Test	Score	GT1	GT2
Reference 8800GTS 320 500/1600MHz	3599	29.419	30.559	?
XFX 8800GTS 580/1800MHz 320MB	4304	35.649	36.085	?
Nvidia 8800GTS 550/1760MHz 640MB OC	3923	32.189	33.202	?
?	?	?	?	?
HDR/SM3.0 Test	Score	HDR1	HDR2
Reference 8800GTS 320 500/1600MHz	3581	32.480	39.149	?
XFX 8800GTS 580/1800MHz 320MB	4335	39.821	46.808	?
Nvidia 8800GTS 550/1760MHz 640MB OC	3935	35.679	43.026	?
?	?	?	?	?
CPU Test	Score	CPU1	CPU2
Reference 8800GTS 320 500/1600MHz	2515	0.804	1.260	?
XFX 8800GTS 580/1800MHz 320MB	2522	0.806	1.262	?
Nvidia 8800GTS 550/1760MHz 640MB OC	2515	0.806	1.257	?
?	?	?	?	?
Quake 4	1024x768	1280x960	1600x1200	2048x1536
Reference 8800GTS 320 500/1600MHz	165.7	158.1	143.3	109.5
XFX 8800GTS 580/1800MHz 320MB	165.1	161.9	151.6	122.7
Nvidia 8800GTS 550/1760MHz 640MB OC	167.2	160.4	143.8	109.8
?	?	?	?	?
Quake 4 High Quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 8X	1024x768	1280x960	1600x1200	2048x1536
Reference 8800GTS 320 500/1600MHz	152.0	124.6	100.3	67.9
XFX 8800GTS 580/1800MHz 320MB	155.8	132.6	110.2	78.0
Nvidia 8800GTS 550/1760MHz 640MB OC	153.9	130.2	105.2	72.7
?	?	?	?	?
FEAR	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
Reference 8800GTS 320 500/1600MHz	184	149	109	75
XFX 8800GTS 580/1800MHz 320MB	171	148	120	82
Nvidia 8800GTS 550/1760MHz 640MB OC	183	150	112	76
?	?	?	?	?
FEAR High Quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 16X	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
Reference 8800GTS 320 500/1600MHz	118	73	45	25
XFX 8800GTS 580/1800MHz 320MB	129	84	49	28
Nvidia 8800GTS 550/1760MHz 640MB OC	121	87	61	37

XFX What's in the XFX GeForce 8800 GTS 580M XXX box

In 3Dmark03 XFX's card is almost 3000 marks faster than the reference clocked one. The second overclocked card can hold up the ground and ends up almost 2000 marks faster but still loses from XFX by 1000 points. XFX simply dominates in this test. It is the only card to pump more than 100 FPS at Vertex Shader test. XFXGeforce 8800 GTS 580M XXX is almost 1500 points faster in 3Dmark05. We are comparing this card to a reference while the overclocked card ends up faster than reference and beats it by 800 points. Still, XFX is some 700 marks faster than the card overclocked at 550 MHz. XFX is the only card to pump over 400 PFS in Pixel shader test for as much as 70 FPS.

3Dmark06 also shows a huge difference the XFX card is 1300 marks faster then the reference and some 700 marks faster than the overclocked card. It is just 250 marks away from a milestone 10.000 score. The overclocked card is some 600 marks faster than the reference card. XFX card clearly wins in Shader model 2.0 test and beats the reference by 700 marks and the overclocked card for 400 marks. Shader model 3.0 / HDR test is again the XFX playground. It is like deja vu as the card is exactly 700 points faster than reference and 400 from the 550 MHz clocked card. It is clear that overclocking really pays off. The XFX card is almost seven percent faster than the overclocked card and almost sixteen percent faster than the reference card. It is also important to remind you that the overclocked card has 320 MB's of memory and it beats 640 MB card in every single test.

You have to reach the higher resolutions to see the difference. The performance increase at 10x7 and 12x10 is marginal at Quake 4 but you can see the difference at higher resolutions. XFX card ends up, up to thirteen frames faster or almost twelve percent faster. The reference card stays in the dust and the XFX card is some 15 percent faster.

FEAR likes more memory. The XFX card will need a higher resolution to beat the 640 MB overclocked card and 320 MB non overclocked one. The XFX is about 10 percent faster at 16x12 and about nine percent at top resolution.

Turning the FSAA and Aniso totally changes the picture. XFX 320 MB overclocked card still beats the reference card by around nine percent but this time 640 MB overclocked card can show its teeth. It is significantly faster at two top resolutions and beats the XFX 320 MB card by as much as 32 percent. This was the only case where 640 MB card really paid of but don't forget that the 640 MB one costs 50 to €70 more.

In Short
It is very clear to us that XFX did a good job. We just hope that card can keep up its warranty life at such a high speeds. XFX GeForce 8800 GTS 580M XXX, 320MB GDDR3 is clearly the winner for games and synthetic benchmarks. The best of all is the fact that 320 MB almost never limits your game play. The only case where 320MB card loses from 640 MB one was FEAR with high resolutions. As most of you still use 1280x1024 or similar resolutions this is nothng to worry about. If you want to go over 1600x1200 you should consider 640MB card. XFX 580 MB XXX is a lot of a card for €325 including VAT and we can easily recommend it.

The card is up to fifteen percent faster than the Nvidia reference card and I think that money difference plays off. If you want to play it safe we recommend 550MHz clocked card as it has less of a chance to burn in your long nights of game play.

So 320MB version is good and fast and XFX did a great job with it. ?

The Good
Very fast
DirectX 10Will be good choice for Vista and DirectX 10 games
320MB enough for today's games

The Bad
More memory would not hurt

The Ugly
The super high clock puts the card under some pressure

Reviewed and tested by Sanjin Rados and Fuad Abazovic