ZOTAC GeForce GTX 590 : Power!

The revised Fermi architecture was just what the doctor ordered and it has been doing wonders for Nvidia right from the GTX 460, till today. It has been a tough struggle for AMD since then because unlike the previous generations like the 5000 and 4000 series where the red team ruthlessly dominated the market, their 6000 series GPUs received mixed reviews. The GTX 580 is still the fastest single GPU solution available in the market. Now imagine adding two of those GPUs on a single PCB and you have a recipe for pure awesomeness. The GTX 590 we’ll be reviewing today consists of two full grown Fermi cores slapped onto a single board running in SLI. This particular graphics card is from ZOTAC, so let’s take a closer look at what you get. 

Design and Features

A well designed card

This a really long card measuring 11-inches in length, so make sure your cabinet is up to the task before you buy it. Both the cores run at 607MHz and a total of 3GB GDDR5 memory running on a 768-bit memory bus. The card supports quad SLI by connecting another GTX 590. 

Plenty of connectivity options

For connectivity, we have three dual-link DVI-I connectors and a DisplayPort connector as well. Since there are two GTX 580 GPUs, the ZOTAC GTX 590 supports Nvidia’s 3DVision Surround out of the box. The card is powered by two 8-pin connectors with a rated power draw of 365W. Nvidia recommends you use at least a 700W PSU from a reputed brand which means an 80+ certification is the bare minimum.  

Test Rig Specifications

Processor: Intel Core i7-2600K CPU @ 3.40 GHz
Motherboard: GIGABYTE P67A-UD3R
Memory: Corsair Dominator GT 6 GB DDR3 (3 x 2 GB)
Hard drive: WD Velociraptor  300 GB
GPU: ZOTAC GTX 590
PSU: Cooler Master Silent Pro 1000W
Driver Version : 275.33