GeForce GTX 580 Showdown: ASUS Matrix vs.EVGA Classified

Final Thoughts and Conclusions

After spending several weeks with the ASUS MATRIX GeForce GTX580 Platinum and the EVGA GeForce GTX 580 Classified 3072MB we quickly discovered that both video cards are outstanding examples of what the engineers at each company can do. Both designs differ greatly from the reference NVIDIA design and that was fine with us as we didn’t miss any features of the reference card.

At the beginning of the review we clearly stated that we would declare a clear winner and now that the dust has settled we find two cards that battled each other closely in our testing. Let’s try to make sense of everything.

The EVGA GeForce GTX 580 Classified 3072MB was the fastest in the benchmarks thanks to the 855MHz core clock speeds, but was also the most expensive at $599.99. Since it had higher clock speeds and more memory it used the most power and the temperature and noise testing was a wash. We thought this card would come out victorious in the overclocking section, but it lost by less than 10MHz. Talk about being close!

The ASUS MATRIX GeForce GTX580 Platinum only has 1536MB of memory, but on our single monitor setup at 1920×1080 we didn’t see any games that needed more than this. Since it has less memory this card it uses less power and it also costs less money at just $529.99. At $70 less it makes this card roughly 12% cheaper to own than the EVGA GeForce GTX 580 Classified 3072MB. If you look at the performance charts it’s about 4-5% slower due to the clock speed, so it offers a better bang for the buck. It also ran quieter during gaming and overclocked beyond the EVGA GeForce GTX 580 Classified 3072MB. So, after overclocking it’s actually faster and costs less.

The one kicker is that the EVGA GeForce GTX 580 Classified 3072MB comes with a limited lifetime warranty with registration within 30 days of purchase. The ASUS MATRIX GeForce GTX580 Platinum comes with just a thre year limited warranty.

Since we have to pick just one winner here we’d have to go with the ASUS MATRIX GeForce GTX580 Platinum as it costs $70 less and was an awesome video card no matter how you looked at it. The only real weakness of it is the fact that it takes up three expansion slots. For being the best of the best it gets the Editor’s Choice Award.

While the EVGA GeForce GTX 580 Classified 3072MB didn’t come out on top it was an awesome video card with amazing performance. For those that want to run SLI and/or want a lifetime warranty you might want to spend the extra $70 and pick up this card. We highly recommend this card as well.