Product Listing

MSI N580GTX Lightning Xtreme Edition - Memory Overload

By Vincent Chang - 28 Jun 2011
Launch SRP: S$859

Conclusion

Conclusion

The specifications of the MSI N580GTX Lightning Xtreme are no doubt impressive. Clock speeds out of the box are among the highest we have seen and that 3GB of GDDR5 memory will surely catch the attention of any enthusiast. Throw in that unique, temperature-sensitive color changing fans and the various enthusiast-oriented touches, like voltage check points and one gets a premium graphics card.

It's just a pity then that we couldn't find any significant improvement in benchmark scores between the 3GB and the standard 1.5GB GeForce GTX 580. The three benchmarks that we tested at 2560 x 1600 pixels resolution showed little difference between the two memory capacities and while there are probably some occasions that would benefit from the extra memory, it's certainly not going to help those buying a single graphics card. If anything, those working on SLI configurations, running multiple monitors and gaming on higher resolutions for surround gaming and 3D could see some assistance from the extra memory. This group however, is a small niche.

That just leaves the Xtreme with its special version of the Twin Frozr III cooler as its sole redeeming factor. And frankly, it's not really that important. Thanks to the excellent cooler which was very quiet and cool, we ironically didn't manage to get the fan to change to white, not even when we were overclocking it. For most users, we believe that should be the case. In any case, the performance of this MSI card cannot be doubted: it was the fastest GTX 580 we tested out of the box and the overclocking was a breeze with the included MSI Afterburner tool.

The price however is another story. Two local retail shops that we checked online had it listed at S$859, which is more than the S$789 for the MSI Lightning, which is effectively identical except  for the memory size. ASUS' new Matrix GTX580 Platinum is also less expensive at $809, which makes the Xtreme too pricey a proposition. Unless you can find a use for that 3GB GDDR5 memory, we recommend getting the standard MSI Lightning instead.

 

Given the lack of impact from that huge 3GB frame buffer, consumers would be better off getting the standard MSI Lightning instead of the Xtreme.

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8.0
  • Performance 9
  • Features 9
  • Value 7
The Good
Excellent cooler
Dual-slot solution
Relatively high clock speeds out of the box
The Bad
Too pricey
3GB memory has little impact on performance
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