Nvidia debuts GeForce GTX 580, ‘the world’s fastest GPU’

By Aemon Malone Published May 17, 2011

Nvidia today announced its latest contribution to the rapidly evolving world of PC graphics hardware. Nvidia says the GeForce GTX 580 is its fastest graphical processing unit (GPU) to date – potentially 20 percent to 35 percent faster than its GTX 480 predecessor which was released just under one year ago.

The GTX 580 is based on the GTX 480’s Fermi architecture and is designed to make the most of the latest Direct X 11 capabilities. The most important of those capabilities – at least as far as gamers are concerned – is tessellation. Tessellation allows designers to ramp up in-game polygons on the fly and add intricate details to those polygons without having to cut back on performance. Nvidia cites Civilization V and Metro 2033 as examples of games that prominently make use of the technology. The company claims that the GTX 580 will deliver tessellation performance up to 160 percent faster than competing GPUs.

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Tessellation aside, the GTX 580 also will also offer support for Nvidia’s 3D Vision Surround which transforms games and movies into stereoscopic 3D through wireless glasses and software. The GPU looks to offer a broad experience by offering additional support for Surround, PhysX, and SLI technologies. Nvidia also claims that the GTX 580 will address the heat and noise issues that plagued the GTX 480.

PC-builder Maingear has announced that it will be one of the first companies to offer the GeForce GTX 580 graphics card pre-installed on its customized PCs. The GPU will sell in a standalone version with a reported price tag of $499.

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