NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 Review - PAGE 1

Last month NVIDIA unleashed their flagship graphics processor into the market, and most reviewers declared it to be the “Fermi graphics card we have all be waiting for”. Well, we didn’t have to wait long for a follow up, because the green team is at it again and this time they are releasing the latest iteration in the 500 series, the GTX 570. The GTX 570, like the 580 uses a slightly redesigned version of the Fermi architecture that increases the power efficiency and raw graphics power beyond that of 400 series.

Where the GTX 570 differs from the GTX 580 is that it has reduced frequencies, CUDA cores, ROP units, texture units and a lower memory bandwidth. With this reduction the GTX 570 will have the same level of CUDA cores as the GTX 480, but with GPU clock speeds of 732MHz and 1280MB of GDDR5 memory rated at 950MHz (3800MHz effective) the GTX 570 should be able to go round for round with NVIDIA's retired 400 series flagship graphics card.

One aspect that has remained unchanged though though is that the GTX 570 is designed to deliver a quieter gaming experience via NVIDIA's vapor-chamber cooling solution. The vapor-chamber is the green teams latest reference heatsink design that is used on the 500 series graphics cards to reduce the overall operating temperature, while at the same time maintaining a lower acoustic level. The vapor-chamber design worked exceptionally well in combination with the GF110 GPU on the GTX 580, and since this model has a slightly lower TDP, it should prove just as - if not even more so - effective in cooling the GTX 570 GPU. Additionally, the GTX 570 incorporates NVIDIA's Adaptive fan controller to aid even further in the acoustic reduction.

At $349 USD dollars, the GTX 570 is designed to offer gamers a more affordable option than that of the GTX 580, yet maintain a very high level of performance while using maximum settings across even the highest resolutions. According to NVIDIA, the GTX 570 boasts a 25% increase in performance compared to the GTX 470, and better performance than any single GPU product AMD currently has on the market.