Nvidia GeForce GTX 570 1.3GB Review

Conclusion

We must admit to being taken by surprise by the release of the GeForce GTX 570 1.3GB so soon after that of the GeForce GTX 580 1.5GB, but it certainly makes sense. With ATI dragging its heels for whatever reason over the HD 6900-series cards, Nvidia has been presented with a fantastic opportunity to corner the high-end market, and with the GTX 570 1.3GB it’s hard to bet against the green team.

The performance of the GTX 570 1.3GB is roughly on par with that of the GTX 480 1.5GB, but it’ll depend on game engines as to which is faster. As we saw in Black Ops, some games will take advantage of 1.5GB of video memory, and this can let the GTX 570 1.3GB down a little. For the most part the performance difference in speed between the ludicrously hot, loud and pricey GTX 480 1.5GB and this quiet £300 card are slight. When the engine is more sensitive to GPU processing power rather than memory, such as in Bad Company 2, the GTX 570 1.3GB proves the quicker.

Thermal performance was as good as we’d hoped, having seen the improvements brought by a vapour chamber cooler with the GTX 580 1.5GB. Even power consumption was excellent, marginally undercutting that of the GTX 470 1.3GB despite a substantial performance jump.


At £289, the GTX 570 1.3GB doesn’t even have a crazy price – the card is not just very fast in every game, but the cooler is effective and quiet. The GTX 580 1.5GB sells for a bit under £400 and yet this new card can deliver much of that bohemoth’s performance for much less. In Bad Company 2 at 1,920 x 1,200 with 4x AA the GTX 570 1.3GB is only 5fps (or 10 per cent) slower; in Just Cause 2 at the same settings it’s just 12 per cent slower. That’s amazing for a card that’s a bit quieter, consumes less power (and so produces less heat) and costs roughly 30 per cent less than the GTX 580 1.5GB.

We’d have been smiling patronisingly if you’d told us back in March that we’d be able to get GTX 480 1.5GB performance, without the heat and noise, for under £300, but that’s the progress that the GTX 570 1.3GB represents.

All in all, it’s a superb card. Just like the GTX 580 1.5GB, it offers a significant jump in performance over the previous generation, it runs both cool and quiet and it’s well priced in comparison to the competition. ATI is due to respond very soon (it promises) with an high-end offering, so that might be worth waiting for, but it’ll take a lot to beat Nvidia’s GeForce 500-series. Is it too late to change our Christmas lists?

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• 9/10

Score Guide