GTX 580 Thread! Opinions? Reports?

[miguelpp 25]

Hi Dave, have you tried with fps unlimited?I have seen your signature...My short experience (3-4 hours) with mine is very satisfactory. No stutters, everything working OK.My system; MSI Big Bang Fuzion, core i7 875K, Prolimatech Megahalems, CoolerMaster Fan 120 PWM, 8 GB DDR3 G Skill, X Fi Xtrememusic, Samsung F3 1 TB, Gigabyte GTX580, NEC 2490WUXI2.No overclocking at all. Ultra quiet system.Best.Miquel.

[spilok 1,132]

Hi Stan,Congrats on your new machine! I have everything maxed out to the right except for mesh at 5 meters and water back a single notch. I should point out that I use the autogen FSX.cfg file adjustments as specified in this thread at the ORBX forums linked RIGHT HERE. It is worth reading and adjusting your settings accordingly.Kind regards,

Stephen,Thanks. i read your posts on ORBX and I learned a great deal about the Autogen Tweaks. I've never played with the buildings and trees, but your logic makes perfect sense.Stan

[CFIJose 5,485]

After reading everything I can find on the 580 GTX I have to think that it is simply a significantly improved 480 GTX, and the latest entry presented in the Nvidia 400 series video card family. Sure, it may warrant a 500 series number to distinguish it for image marketing purposes, but it is essentially in most ways a fixed and enhanced 480 GTX. I get incredible frame rates with my massively overclocked EVGA 480 GTX in an ultra smooth FTX enviroment because this video card is well matched and a fully equal partner to the equipment it works with, namely the SSD's in Raid 0, very fast Ram, an ultra-high stable overclocked CPU and an adequate power suppy. When I can run maxed out FSX settings in the most demanding of circumstances with a setting of 60 FPS that seldom drop below 40, and never below 25, this is as good as it gets. A 580 GTX would do nothing to improve flightsim performance for me or my machine, except add another medal to my chest, and a few hundred dollars on my credit card to clean up at the end of the month.But, and this is a big but, when the new Sandy Bridge CPU's and motherboards come out, I hope to assemble a system that would stretch a new and improved Nvidia card. So, maybe next year sometime, Lord willing, there will be a new 585 GTX or a 680 GTX, or whatever, providing me with the latest flightsim fun and excitement. Meanwhile I am very content to have a setup that has exceeded all my hopes and expectations for my hobby. Like most things in life, you never know how much you enjoy and take for granted what you already have, until you are presented with, and seriously contemplate something different. So, it will be very interesting to see what will constitute a fully integrated 580 GTX system that will push the performance possibilities forward. Anyone with an intense interest in such things are living in exciting times for Intel says the biggest jump in their company history is just about to take place with Sandy Bridge. We have just a few more weeks to wait, and a new race for the stars will begin.Kind regards,

I feel the same way. Maybe most gtx 480 were defective because I've never had a fan problem or heat issues.

[Guest freebird77]

I feel the same way. Maybe most gtx 480 were defective because I've never had a fan problem or heat issues.

The 480 is a nice card performance wise but I have never heard anything about deffective 480s, my 480 was no defect, just loud and hot like all of them out there. All 480s share the same cooling unless you have aftermarket or water cooling, and there IS a BIG diffrence compared to the 580!Source Nvidia slide on Noise (or any tech site you want):Temps?Compare the stock 480 against these 20 cards at idle and under-load and then look at the 580 - even comparing these cards when overclocked the 580 runs as cool as an overclocked 450GTS underload...Here Performance in DX9 games compared to 480 --->Here

[jjjallen 37]

Thanks for your reply Stephen, I hope it is just driver related, i guess my concern is after reading another thread here i haven't seen anyone else comment on micro-stutters upgrading from their 480's.Its heartbreaking that i am seriously considering selling my 580 as I'm concerned that if i am the only one getting this that the longer i wait before selling the less money i will get back.If it wasn't for the GTX470 performing beautifully i would think that it could be my settings but it doesn't explain why i get such smooth flight with the 470.Thanks for your input Stephan, i might wait for the next driver release before doing anything drastic, i would be relieved if anyone else gets the same and has tweaked something to fix it.RegardsDave

Don't despair Dave. - Your problem is definitely not the 580 but more likely a tuning issue.  In my case The 460 GTX really was happiest at 4ghz on the CPU while the 580 doesn't start to breath until 4.2ghz.  An uneducated guess is that your 580 is waiting on FSX which is usually not the case.  Have you tried Bojote's latest tweak with the SwapWaitTimeout = 2? Good luck with itjja 

[Guest r4nk]

Hi Folks, sorry for the delay in getting back to you, I've had a fairly busy past day trying to get to the bottom of my issues with smoothness and the 580.Ended up uninstalling everything and starting the FSX installation again with no tweaks and adding the addons between tests, what i found was that the stutters were only just noticeable but were there with the base FSX even at very high frame rates, best noticed when looking out side windows or turning and then they became more noticeable as FTX, REX and PMDG 747 were applied. Drivers were also removed and flushed with driver sweeper and installed again using clean install. Its not a massive stutter i am getting just very small ones which become annoying and as soon as i go back to the 470 100% smooth even at very low frame rates.My tests included capping frames between 20-30 and also using unlimited, unlimited being better but still with tiny jumps. I found that i at least need BP=0 and Affinitymask=14 to get the best performance with my 980x and the card and have tested flights with and without. I have also tried removing the realtek sound drivers as i have had issues with these before but problem still exists. I also tried not over clocking the CPU but the issue is still there plus a hit in FPS. Also no difference with Nvidia inspector or default Nvidia settings. Heat is definitely not an issue here. Nothing i seem to try will take away these tiny jumps which after a while i wonder if i am being too fussy but that thought is soon perished as soon as i go back to the 470.@jjjallen, i haven't tried the SwapWaitTimeout = 2 tweak and will look into it. I haven't as yet given up but it absolutely baffles me why everyone else is reporting such smooth flight, i have brand new very high end parts and cant figure out where this could be coming from.If you don't hear from me for a couple of days its because i have to get back to my real work and take a break from pulling my hair out for a day or so :-)Thanks again for your support. RegardsDave

[jjjallen 37]

You sound like a smart guy Dave so let us know what you come up with.jja

[Guest r4nk]

Back again :-)I have diverted my focus away from the minor stutters for the moment have have been trying to figure out why my 580 is showing absolutely no increase in performance in FSX than my 470. I might add that i get an extra 9,500 gpu points in 3D Mark Vantage with the 580 ( GTX470: gpu 15205 , GTX580 gpu 24746) but in FSX nada !I ran some tests with the same flight, low level approach over my home town Adelaide Australia, starting with no Addons and gradually building up and then did the exact flights on both cards. Only tweaks were BP=0 and AM=14 which i seem to need for performance especially when all the addons are on. Sliders were kept the same, set for final set up with all addons. Virtual Cockpit view pulled back by 2.Here are the results (Lowest FPS. Highest FPS, Average FPS)Clean FSX no addonsGTX470: 74, 122, 99GTX580: 72, 130, 100 (10 frames better on highest FPS, about the only significant increase with all tests and not exactly where i need it)REX only (2048 clouds)GTX470: 72, 122, 95GTX580: 71, 122, 96REX and FTXGTX470: 28, 68, 46GTX580: 28, 67, 45REX + FTX + PMDG747GTX470: 20, 35, 29GTX580: 20, 35, 29REX + FTX + PMDG747 + ENBGTX470: 17, 31, 25GTX580: 18, 30, 25Can anyone explain this because it doesn't make any sense to me at all, people here are very impressed with a noticeable increase in performance upgrading from a 480 to a 580 and here i am testing a 470 and a 580 and they are exactly the same. I know its not just about frame rates but i don't get any added smoothness either, if it wasn't for the 3D Mark tests i would be thinking some one slipped a 470 chip into my 580 :-)I was thinking maybe the over clocking as i am only using the multiplier on the Rampage 3 (no over clocking skills here) so tied the same experiment with no OC, guess what...same again :-(Is my 580 being bottlenecked by something? how can there be no difference between my benchmarks and watching the visual performance? I am i definitely the only one here who has this issue?Also if anyone has the 980x and 580 combination i would love to hear how you have tuned your system, OC?, CFG - AM? BP?, HT on/off? etc. Been trying my best to tune it here but I am fairly new to all this.Mainly i would love to know why i have 2 gtx470's here, one with 580 written on the side :-) Any thoughts here would be greatly appreciated.RegardsDaveP.S I found that the Addon that has the most FPS hit by itself with no other addons was the PMDG 747 (Latest update). Worse than FTX by itself. REX being the best with hardly any impact.Clean FSX no addonsGTX470: 74, 122, 99GTX580: 72, 130, 100PMDG onlyGTX470: 29, 43, 38GTX580: 28, 42, 38 FTX onlyGTX470: 29, 69, 46GTX580: 29, 67, 46 REX onlyGTX470: 72, 122, 95GTX580: 71, 122, 96

[Guest jahman]

Why don't you benchmark both cards just to be sure?Cheers,- jahman.

[Guest r4nk]

Hi jahman. The above tests were with both cards, regarding 3D Mark 06 the increase not as high as with 3D Mark Vantage, is that normal?3D Mark VantageGTX470: 15205GTX580: 247463D Mark 06GTX470: 24716GTX580: 27131

[jjjallen 37]

Back again :-)I have diverted my focus away from the minor stutters for the moment have have been trying to figure out why my 580 is showing absolutely no increase in performance in FSX than my 470. I might add that i get an extra 9,500 gpu points in 3D Mark Vantage with the 580 ( GTX470: gpu 15205 , GTX580 gpu 24746) but in FSX nada !I ran some tests with the same flight, low level approach over my home town Adelaide Australia, starting with no Addons and gradually building up and then did the exact flights on both cards. Only tweaks were BP=0 and AM=14 which i seem to need for performance especially when all the addons are on. Sliders were kept the same, set for final set up with all addons. Virtual Cockpit view pulled back by 2.Here are the results (Lowest FPS. Highest FPS, Average FPS)Clean FSX no addonsGTX470: 74, 122, 99GTX580: 72, 130, 100 (10 frames better on highest FPS, about the only significant increase with all tests and not exactly where i need it)REX only (2048 clouds)GTX470: 72, 122, 95GTX580: 71, 122, 96REX and FTXGTX470: 28,  68, 46GTX580: 28,  67, 45REX + FTX + PMDG747GTX470: 20,  35, 29GTX580: 20,  35, 29REX + FTX + PMDG747 + ENBGTX470: 17,  31, 25GTX580: 18,  30, 25Can anyone explain this because it doesn't make any sense to me at all, people here are very impressed with a noticeable increase in performance upgrading from a 480 to a 580 and here i am testing a 470 and a 580 and they are exactly the same. I know its not just about frame rates but i don't get any added smoothness either, if it wasn't for the 3D Mark tests i would be thinking some one slipped a 470 chip into my 580 :-)I was thinking maybe the over clocking as i am only using the multiplier on the Rampage 3 (no over clocking skills here) so tied the same experiment with no OC, guess what...same again :-(Is my 580 being bottlenecked by something? how can there be no difference between my benchmarks and watching the visual performance? I am i definitely the only one here who has this issue?Also if anyone has the 980x and 580 combination i would love to hear how you have tuned your system, OC?, CFG - AM? BP?, HT on/off? etc. Been trying my best to tune it here but I am fairly new to all this.Mainly i would love to know why i have 2 gtx470's here, one with 580 written on the side :-) Any thoughts here would be greatly appreciated.RegardsDaveP.S I found that the Addon that has the most FPS hit by itself with no other addons was the PMDG 747 (Latest update).  Worse than FTX by itself.  REX being the best with hardly any impact.Clean FSX no addonsGTX470: 74, 122, 99GTX580: 72, 130, 100PMDG onlyGTX470: 29,  43, 38GTX580: 28,  42, 38 FTX onlyGTX470: 29,  69, 46GTX580: 29,  67, 46 REX onlyGTX470: 72, 122, 95GTX580: 71, 122, 96

I'll bet id you tested a GTX285 and GTX460 that the results would be very close also.  Who says that FSX is CPU bound??  LOLThanks for testing.jja

[Guest freebird77]

Mainly i would love to know why i have 2 gtx470's here, one with 580 written on the side :-) Any thoughts here would be greatly appreciated.RegardsDave

Hi Dave,Can't blame you for your frustration thats for sure.Please post your FSX.cfg as well as all of your display driver settings to get some real help, NV inspector included if used.You also might consider installing the latest DirectX updates, if you haven't you can download the installer Here

[Guest freebird77]

I'll bet id you tested a GTX285 and GTX460 that the results would be very close also. Who says that FSX is CPU bound?? LOLThanks for testing.jja

285/460 should be really close as the 285 actually performs -/+5% of a 460 in DX9, however not so with even the 480/580 as the 580 has +20% performance increase over a 480 in published DX9 benchmarks.As this is FSX though and as you pointed out a very CPU bound game if we want to see the difference between these two cards (its much more than just clock) then the GPU weight needs to be increased, turn up the res, turn on the shadder effects, increase the filtering and now enjoy the 580. :)

[Guest veeray]

r4nk: my advice. actively keep good track of the numbers but don't worry about them too much. At the end of the day you do need to load balance for each flight. As much as I love the 747 I make sure I go light on the scenery and use a global texture size of medium to avoid issues.

[jjjallen 37]

285/460 should be really close as the 285 actually performs -/+5% of a 460 in DX9, however not so with even the 480/580 as the 580 has +20% performance increase over a 480 in published DX9 benchmarks.As this is FSX though and as you pointed out a very CPU bound game if we want to see the difference between these two cards (its much more than just clock) then the GPU weight needs to be increased, turn up the res, turn on the shadder effects, increase the filtering and now enjoy the 580. :)

Drivers are the other wildcard in cross GPU testing.Thanksjja