Starting next week NVIDIA will launch its second performance graphics card this fall with the GeForce GTX 570. The card builds on the same GPU as big brother GeForce GTX 580 – GF110 – but the cards will be clearly separated. According to sources to NordicHardware NVIDIA has given partners free hands to develop the card as they please.
We have already seen the complete specifications for NVIDIA’s new graphics card, but it turns out that there may be some significant differences between manufacturers and models. The reason is simple, NVIDIA has instead of sending out a complete reference card just sent the new GF110 GPUs that will be used for GeForce GTX 570. The rest – I.e. circuits board, clock frequencies and coolers – is up to each partner.
GeForce GTX 570 will not have the regular reference design, which means the previously leaked specifications may be a bit off, at least considering clock frequencies and pwoer consumption. Overall this feels like a goodthing since it means the consumers will have more to pick from and the companies can come up with its own efficient solutions that NVIDIA doesn’t have time to come up with for the partners.
| GeForce GTX 580 | GeForce GTX 570 | GeForce GTX 480 | GeForce GTX 470 | |
| GPU | GF110 | GF110 | GF100 | GF100 |
| Node | 40nm | 40nm | 40nm | 40nm |
| CUDA cores | 512 | 480 |
480 | 448 |
| GPU clock freq. |
772 MHz | 732 MHz (?) |
700 MHz | 607 MHz |
| CUDA clock freq. |
1544 MHz | 1380 MHz (?) | 1400 MHz | 1215 MHz |
| Memory clock freq. |
4008 MHz | 3800 MHz (?) | 3696 MHz | 1674 MHz |
| Memory interface |
384-bit | 320-bit | 384-bit | 320-bit |
| Memory buffer |
1536 MB | 1280 MB | 1536 MB | 1280 MB |
| Memory bandwidth |
192.4 GB/s | 152,0 GB/s | 177.4 GB/s | 133.9 GB/s |
| Texture fillrate | 49,4 GTexel/s | 41,4 GTexel/s | 42,0 GTexel/s | 34.0 GTexel/s |
| Power cons, |
244 watt | 225 watt | 250 watt | 215 watt |
The specifications that will last is of course the number of CUDA cores and memory bus, since these are tied to the GPU, but other than that partners have relatively large freedom to whatever they please to tailor their cards to their liking. This means that prices of GeForce GTX 570 may vary more than usual at launch, which all comes down to what solutions the companies choose.
According to our sources GeForce GTX 570 will be in stores at launch, but the quantities are harder to predict. Most likely we’re dealing with a short supply in the beginning, which would not surprise since GeForce GTX 580 is still a rare sight. NVIDIA hopes to fill some stockings this Christmas with the new performance card. On the 7th of December we will reveal more about the card and see if it continues the positive trend set by big brother GeForce GTX 580.
