Hey there. Without getting into much detail, I want to go over the only 580 Classy review I could find. It's been a while since the card came out, and so I've been seeing some of you buying the card without a proper review. While I don't post here anymore, I'll just go over this review for you to make an informed decision. So here it goes...

The package



Well, not much to say here...  Our regular eVGA box, which is nice.

The card



Now here's where things start to get different. The first thing to notice here is the fan. It may remind you of the 8800 Ultra, but it's actually an oversized server blower type of fan. Like this one:



This design, if done properly, could well be effective. It pushes hot air out of your case while creating a vacuum chamber inside of the card. But that could make it loud at high rev., or not that effective in idle; since it won't be pushing much pressure at low RPM's.

The second thing to notice are the PCI-E connectors



Two 8-pin and a 6-pin is required to boot this GPU. Why you'd ask? To power each 3 regulation sector, which makes things easy for extreme OC'ing. However, not so easy for us. Even though a 850W PSU can handle this setup, this power config forces you to use converters, or move up to a 1000W unit.

The PCB



Looks a bit empty, eh? That's because it's a dual-PCB solution. Meaning stronger PCB - and higher card quality. There's also a Proadlizer (high-current capacitor) to stabilize current on the back.



Card comes with a High Flow Bracket (HFB) to help this kind of fan configuration.

The cooler



Similar to the reference 580 Vapour Chamber, but oversized. Now the fan looks similar, too. There's an another Proadlizer and a pair of Tantalum (resistor-like) caps to improve regulation.



I'd say this card is ugly... The sticker is nice, but the card itself seems ugly to me. However that's subjective, so let's pass on that one

Overclocking

I'll quote this part since there aren't any pictures for his OC.

"To get the most out of the card I started with the core clock speed inching it up 20 Mhz at a time then running a quick test in their OC Scanner. Just to be sure that cooling wouldn’t be an issue I cranked the Classifieds massive cooler up to 100%. Just as I hit 935 MHz I ran into issues. I slowly took the clock back down 5 MHz at a time until I was able to complete the OC Scanners tests without any problems (920 MHz). Next I dropped down to the Memory Clock. Surprisingly even the slightest bump here caused problems. Curious to see if this had anything to do with my Core Clock overclock I set the core clock back to its stock clock and retested. This time I had no trouble overclocking the memory. Knowing I would see a bigger performance increase from the core clock I went back to the 920 MHz overclock for our testing."

Sounds like the card got noisy, that and he couldn't OC memory reason possibly being 3 GB modules with higher latency. His core clock is solid, the cooler doesn't seem to cool as well as an open design (like MSI's Twin-Frozr), though. Still, keep in mind that the Twin-Frozr pumps it's heat inside of your case. But it also cools quieter.

My verdict

I didn't go over the extra's or performance figure tidbits because... you know. I didn't make this post to tell you what to buy, either. I prefer to keep unsided, BUT, personally, I would prefer MSI's Lightning Extreme over this card. However, MSI practically shines when it comes to warranty. There you have one solid reason to choose this card over MSI's solution. Hope this helps a little.

Anyway, I missed the temp part.



It does cool better than reference, but 52C is eh. I saw someone have 1.1mV stock on his card, could be why. Seems like they upped volts to make up for the card's high stock clock.

The top of the line 580 offerings from Asus and MSI weren't anything special on air, but they took off like crazy once a little cold was added.
 
The classy is meant to be top of the heap, and that will be done with power.  I wouldn't be surprised if we're clocking this card at 1600 core @ 2+v under ln2.  Hell, I was smacking the CUII around at 1.7v all day long with it's beefed up power capabilities. 
 
Nice job TiN and Vince

Q56_Monster

The top of the line 580 offerings from Asus and MSI weren't anything special on air, but they took off like crazy once a little cold was added.

The classy is meant to be top of the heap, and that will be done with power.  I wouldn't be surprised if we're clocking this card at 1600 core @ 2+v under ln2.  Hell, I was smacking the CUII around at 1.7v all day long with it's beefed up power capabilities. 

Nice job TiN and Vince

I kinda disagree wiht that... Asus 580 matrix's are hitting 1ghz on air pretty regularly... they are making a name for themselves for one of the best Binned upper offerings of gfx cards.  i believe this was also the case when they released their 480's as well.  i dont see any other company that has as high clocking on air on any of these cards.

ablan001I think you posted the same information twice. After "the verdict" it goes back to the start again.

Cleaned up, cheers. Goes directly to the end now. I was copy-pasting the text in case something goes wrong while I was typing it.

TiN_EEThen you don't have even a card itself, but making fake judgements of other reviewer's work. No need to have schematics, just a card is enough to see how it is done. Are you working for MSI or what? Every thread about EVGA card is filled with yours "I would buy Lightning" :)

The specific reviewer has no idea what he's on about, so I'm trying to interpret the weak review from what I see. As for the MSI, if for running on air, it's better in nearly every way. Only needs 6 + 8 pin to work, cools better, quieter, pulls less power, looks better. Hell, it even has a fan that turns backwards. Not much of a hard choice eh? Heh...

I'm hoping the classified cards are able to do 1GHz under water.

Halfdead14
They do, random picked card did 1020 in 3d11 with +35c water :)
 

kmconstableTiN the issue here is that Johhny is angry because he has been called out for being pushy and unwilling to admit when he is wrong in other threads.  As with any of his threads this seems to be another attempt to prove his perspective as the best of all perspectives.   Truth, fiction or in between does not matter if it is his opinion.

Right. The card doesn't OC properly (memory) on air, like a cheap GPU. Needs a boatload of connectors to work while coming with more major downsides. The Lightning Xtreme trumps this card for everyday usage, and, I listed everything yet you still come up with this. But I know, you WILL come up because you're an eVGA fanboy. The reason I opened this thread is to inform people about the up's and down's of this GPU. Now please sit down.

Johhny Doe

kmconstableTiN the issue here is that Johhny is angry because he has been called out for being pushy and unwilling to admit when he is wrong in other threads.  As with any of his threads this seems to be another attempt to prove his perspective as the best of all perspectives.   Truth, fiction or in between does not matter if it is his opinion.

Right. The card doesn't OC properly (memory) on air, like a cheap GPU. Needs a boatload of connectors to work while coming with more major downsides. The Lightning Xtreme trumps this card for everyday usage, and, I listed everything yet you still come up with this. But I know, you WILL come up because you're an eVGA fanboy. The reason I opened this thread is to inform people about the up's and down's of this GPU. Now please sit down.

actually if you look at the 580 classified overclock thread, the entire GPU doesnt overclock properly... 1.29v to hit 1000mhz is crazy.. yes they are making the board able to handle ridiculous amounts of volts... but to have to take 1.29v to hit it makes one think these GPU's arent binned at all...
 
Well so far only 1 has been overclocked on air... so i guess we will see what other people get...

Robz360Troll thread

No, it's not. Υou're crapping my thread. That's what you want to make people believe in, and I won't let this fanboyism take place in my thread. See the posts above yours.

wdflyerI really don’t understand the review you’re doing here.

I am just trying to get the LANOC review right.

Johhny Doe
Well, I credited the review. Because it's a horrible one. Original review here

lanoc.org/review/video-cards/5342-evga-gtx580-classified-3072mb-air?showall=1

You started with what you call a horrible review, if it is so horrible, why even use it.

Cause there are not any other reviews around. Although it has been days.

Johhny Doe
The specific reviewer has no idea what he's on about, so I'm trying to interpret the weak review from what I see. As for the MSI, if for running on air, it's better in nearly every way. Only needs 6 + 8 pin to work, cools better, quieter, pulls less power, looks better. Hell, it even has a fan that turns backwards. Not much of a hard choice eh? Heh...

Interpret a review from what you see?, did you actually test a card yourself?, if you have, great, if not, how can you review a card if you haven’t tested it yourself? , in all honesty that sounds like a very unrealistic basis for a review.

It is not. The review tells most parts if you know what you are looking at.

I don’t care about the little fan-boyism game  that you are trying to instigate, I own AMD and NVIDIA cards, but it is very hard not to get the sense that there is a bit of a personal agenda at work in your posts.

I listed the facts I could see, there is nothing else. Take it from there or keep up like how you are doing it right now.

bhk1004

EVGA_JacobF

Here is another review

http://benchmarkreviews.c...p;id=801&Itemid=72

makes me sad... another review with no overclocking.. wonder why EVGA doesnt supply them with an updated Evbot so they can properly review?

Υeah, that and he does not even mention the connector issue. I am holding my breath for an HardOCP or a Guru3D review. Till then, mine seems to be the best one.