NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 1.25GB Video Card Review

FurMark 1.8.2

FurMark is a very intensive OpenGL benchmark that uses fur rendering algorithms to measure the performance of the graphics card. Fur rendering is especially adapted to overheat the GPU and that’s why FurMark is also a perfect stability and stress test tool (also called GPU burner) for the graphics card.

The benchmark was rendered in full screen mode with no AA enabled on both video cards.

Benchmark Results: Furmark showed both the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 and GTX 570 performing poorly as the GTX580’s new power monitoring hardware kicked on and slowed the card’s performance down. We did find it interesting that the GeForce GTX 570 performed better than the GTX 580 in this benchmark, but it is likely that the GTX 580 has a more aggressive power profile. NVIDIA said the new GF110 core used on both of these video cards dynamically adjusts performance in certain applications (Furmark and OCCT) in order to keep the power within their specifications. Here we see an example of where the new hardware monitoring management system hurts the card’s performance. We have concerns about this, but NVIDIA said they can make changes in the driver, so if a game comes out down the road a simple driver update is all that is needed to change the power level.