MSI N580GTX M2D15D5 Review– A Reference Card with Some Interesting Extras

NVIDIA’s latest GF110 flagship (that is the GTX 580), has a total of 512 stream processors (or CUDA cores, as NVIDIA likes to call them these days). That’s a bunch more than the GF100 (GTX480), which had to settle with “only” 480 stream processors by the time of its initial launch. Put simply, GeForce GTX 580 is a refinement product that performs better in most -if not all- aspects compared to the GTX 480, NVIDIA’s previous highest-end GPU. You can see the comparison between the two in our first review on the GTX 580.

Graphics card manufacturers have been releasing their GTX 580 products into the market, including MSI with their N580GTX M2D15D5 here. It’s still based on NVIDIA’s reference design, which means that it should be quite identical to other reference-based GTX 580s in terms of performance. Fortunately, MSI added a little something to make the card stand out a bit amongst the crowd. Let’s take a look at the technical specs first.

Specification

	NVIDIA GTX 580	MSI N580GTX M2D15D5
Codename	GF110	GF110
Fabrication Process	40 nm	40 nm
Transistors	3 Billion	3 Billion
Die Size	320 mm²	320 mm²
Core Clock	772 MHz	772 MHz
Stream Processors (CUDA Core)	512	512
Shader Clock	1544 MHz	1544 MHz
Texture Units	64	64
ROPs	48	48
Memory Type	GDDR5	GDDR5
Memory Size	1536 MB	1536 MB
Memory Clock (effective)	4008 MHz	4008 MHz
Memory Interface	384-bit	384-bit
DirectX Version	11	11
Shader Model	5	5
Power Connectors	8-pin + 6-pin	8-pin + 6-pin
Min Recommended Power Supply	600 Watt	600 Watt
Bus Support	PCIe 2.1 x16	PCIe 2.1 x16
TDP	244 Watt	244 Watt
GPU Thermal Threshold	97 C	97 C

As seen in the above table, MSI uses NVIDIA’s standard reference specification for the GTX 580. Everything is similar, including the core, shader, and memory frequencies.

Sales Package and Contents

This is the package box of MSI N580GTX M2D15D5. This time, MSI resorts to a refreshing combination of blue and white colors. The Afterburner logo stickers are attached on the front side and the back of the box.

These are the items we found inside the box. MSI provides a mini-HDMI to HDMI converter that could come in handy when you want to hook up an HDMI display. There is also a 6-pin to 8-pin PCI Express power converter.

Utility – MSI Afterburner

Inside the driver disc, you can find a number of interesting tools, including the MSI Afterburner overclocking utility. With it, you can tweak various parameters like the core clock, memory frequency, and even supplied voltage. Adobe Reader, AIWI, LoiLoscope, MSI Live Update, Norton Internet Security, NVIDIA Design Garage, NVIDIA Supersonic Sled, and NVIDIA 3DVision Video Player are also included in the package.

Third Person Action/Shooter Games

Batman Arkham Asylum

Setting : 1920×1080; No-AA; Maximum Quality

KESIMPULAN

Graphics card manufacturers often use reference design for cards based on a newly announced GPU. As such, products from different brands may look very identical to one another, with the only exceptions usually being the sticker attached to the cooler’s body and the packaging. Their performance will be similar as well. Therefore, what really matters are perhaps the additional accessories inside the box.

Some interesting extras are included in MSI N580GTX M2D15D5’s package: a mini-HDMI to HDMI converter and a 6-pin to 8-pin power connector converter. The former could come in handy when you need to output the display to an HDMI device, while the latter would useful if your PSU lacks an 8-pin PCI Express connector. Of course, the standard DVI to D-SUB converter can also be found amongst the item.

When it comes to performance, the GeForce GTX 580 is simply awesome, outperforming every other single-GPU card in the market today. No question about it. The frame rate across all of our tests stayed well above 30 FPS, except in Metro 2033 under “very high” graphics setting where it only spewed out 28.517 FPS. The card should have no problem rendering PhysX effects in games, as shown by our Batman: Arkham Asylum benchmark where it produced more than 100 FPS even as PhysX was turned on and set to “high”. If you feel like it, you can further improve the card’s already stellar performance by applying some degree of overclocking. The MSI Afterburner software will help you with that.

Pros

Very high performance
mini-HDMI to HDMI and PCI Express 6-pin to 8-pin converters
MSI Afterburner software bundle

Cons

The MSI Afterburner utility is a bit outdated and offers no Core Voltage adjustment. You will need to update it to gain access to that specific parameter.