From MSI, we have the brand new GeForce
GTX 580. This is an NVIDIA GPU. Features
all of the latest technologies including GeForce CUDA, NVIDIA SLI, Physics, 3D
Vision, including 3D Vision Surround with up to three monitors. We've also
got some other cool points here. Check this out. So, this is a special sticker
that goes on USA, Canada, and Mexican models. So, they've got a three-year
warranty in all of those countries. And this particular MSI card features all
solid capacitors for improved lifespan. So we can actually find some more
details about that on the back. So 10 years ultraong lifetime with no
explosion. I think what they actually mean to say is no leaking because
typically capacitors although they can explode typically they're just going to
leak. So you've also got lower temperatures, higher efficiency, but
bear in mind your car will not explode. Very good. So we've got a little list of
the features here. So that is DirectX11, SLI that is up to three-way and even
four-way SLI, surround physics, CUDA,
direct compute, NVIDIA pure video, HD technology. It is a PCI Express 2.0
card. You can read this, I'm sure. Oh, hey, cool. We got uh HDMI 1.4A. So that
means that you are able to play with appropriate software. 3D Blu-ray, oh,
appropriate software and appropriate TV. That's going to cost you. Minimum system
requirements are as follows here. So,
NVIDIA recommends a minimum 600 watt greater power supply with a minimum of
42 amps on the 12volt rail. And up here, this is one of the coolest things about
MSI video cards is that they all come compatible with MSI Afterburner, which
is, if you follow my blog, an outstanding little overclocking utility
that I personally use very frequently and I really, really like. And MSI's
just done a great job in their partnership with Rivet Tuner of uh
basically well they've reskinned the program and they've uh added a couple
features. They've made it really simple to use and uh they've also added their
little combuster utility which is uh in
partnership with the Firmark guys. So they've given you the all the means to
overclock and test your graphics card out of the box which is pretty cool. So,
accessory-wise, we've got a six pin to 8 pin power connector. We've also got a
dual four pin Molex to single six pin power connector. And then we have Oh,
that's a nice long cable, too. Look at that. So, we've got what looks to be
about a 6 ft uh mini HDMI to HDMI cable.
Let me just see what else we've got included here, and then I'll stop
teasing you guys, and we'll look at the card itself. Next, we've got a DVI to
VGA adapter. Finally, we have a uh utilities and
driver DVD or CD. I don't know what it is, but either way, throw it away.
Download the latest from the MSI website. We've got a quick users guide,
which is big. There we are. So, they show some other
MSI products, how to plug it into your computer, all that good stuff. Just kind
of throw that back together. And then finally, we've got the 580 GTX series.
So, this shows you how to use their live update for uh the drivers and also
access well once again a quick start guide. So, there you have it. Two quick
start guides. Two for the price of one.
You know, someone should run that promo on GTX 580s. I bet they'd sell a lot of
GTX 580s if they did two for the price of one. So, one of MSI's kind of unique
little things is they include these little blue uh covers on all of your
connectors, which means that people like me can safely handle the card without
touching the contacts. Actually, everyone gives me a hard time about this, but I'm finally going to explain
why I don't care about touching the contacts like this. Okay, here. Let me
show you guys. So, you see where my finger touches the side of the PCB? I
actually am not making contact with the little golden contacts along the edge of
the PCI Express 16X connector. Look at that. See, no matter how hard I press on
there, I'm not going to touch them. So, I'm only touching a completely inert
part of the PCB when I handle a video card like this. So, there you go. Now,
you know, let's have a look at the back of this video card. So, you can see here
where the GPU is situated. So, that's going to be where most of the bulky
cooling power is done. Now bear in mind the GTX 580 in the reference design does
use a vapor chamber design. So it's not using standard heat pipes. Next we have
some VRM cooling or VRM VRMs here. So
that is uh delivering the power from these six pin and 8 pin power connectors
over to all the power hungry parts that need them. Speaking of power hungry, the
GTX 580 improves over the 480 in a lot of ways. One of which is performance,
another of which is heat. That is to say, it gives off less heat than the
580. And last but not least is power consumption. So the 580 performs better,
runs cooler, and doesn't consume as much
power as the GTX 480. So I think we've
looked at the back of the card fairly indepth here. So oh, you can actually
see there's a little vent here. So, when this fan spins, it's going to exhaust
just a little bit of air out the back, cool off those solid caps, and make sure
that they're all staying nice and not
toasty. So, that is performing very well. So, MSI has put on their
customized branding on the card here. So, we've got an MSI logo to go along
with the GeForce One on the top. And then we've got a little uh looks like
some kind of like a jet or something. What is this here? There's a bigger one
here. If you guys can tell me what that is, I would very much appreciate it.
Maybe it's like a spaceship. I'm not actually sure. Anyway, so it's got
afterurner branding on it as well as MSI branding on it. And they've called out
the name of the N580 GTX right there. You've got a standard fan, that is to
say a rear exhaust fan, which NVIDIA has been using on their reference high-end
cards for quite some time because it does allow you to remove the heat from
the card and exhaust it out the back of your case rather than exhaust it into
your case where it's just going to mean that all of the other components are
going to run hotter, which isn't to say that it's the only approach that works,
but it's worked quite well for NVIDIA over the last little while, so they've
continued to use it. On the back, we've got two DVI ports as well as a mini
HDMI. And MSI has generally generously included the mini HDMI to HDMI cable
because not many people have televisions that run off mini HDMI. So, thank you
for checking out my unboxing of the MSI GTX 580. So, this is a 1.5 Gigabyte
graphics card. That's the amount of memory. And it also has the fastest
graphics processor in the world right
there.