ZOTAC ZT-50101-10P GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Pros: Quick stable graphics. Plows through civ 5 like butter. Not too shabby on Skyrim either, we're getting ever closer to the dream single card Crysis solution. Try it before you knock it!

Cons: There is an odd problem that doesn't affect my normal desktop use. Appears some refresh rates get artifacts. Don't know if it's the card, drivers, or windows... So no eggs docked.

Could have better minimum frame rates?

Other Thoughts: The new mid range. With SLI type fancy rigs now widely available, and expected by game devs, getting any less isn't a good idea. I recommend at least this to future proof a serious gamer build.

Pros: Lives up to expectations.
I have two cards in SLI with no problems.
Runs BF3 on ultra settings, but works better using Nvidia control center rather than game settings. MW3 is no challenge for the up.
Vantage-38,666

Cons: I can't find any as yet and am quite pleased.

Other Thoughts: Asus M4E-Z, 2600k @ 4.6Gz, 8G 1600 Rip Jaws mem. I encountered none of the problems any of the other reviewers reported.

Pros: Powerful rendering, on time images, stands up to the task without killing the CPU.

Cons: Mini-DVI port is fragile if wiggled to much.

Other Thoughts: Overall a great card. I would advise buying it from EVGA though. I had the displeasure of working with Zotac customer support and you do not want to live that nightmare. EVGA has the same product for the same price with better tech support.

Pros: Fast, quiet, runs coolly, and overclocks very well (running at 900/1800/2004). Not really much more you can ask for. It's pricey, but the GTX 580 is the fastest GPU on the planet, so it's worth it!

Cons: Nothing.

Other Thoughts: Running with an i7 860 and 16GB of memory -- gaming doesn't really get better than this! (Although if you're building a new rig, I'd recommend a 2500K + P67 mobo instead of the P55 + i7 860 that I'm running)

Pros: 1. Very fast card
2. Comes with free game

Cons: 1. Still expensive, but still cheapest 580 out there.
2. Mail in rebate. I've never had ANY luck with them.

Other Thoughts: Bought for BF3, runs flawlessly in it at Ultra settings.

Pros: 1. Price- 419.00 after rebate made buying this card a no brainer.
2. Free Game- comes with Prine of Persia Forgotten Sands and Nvidia promo for Free Batman Arkham City download.
3. Mini HDMI adapter
4. Warranty- a bit confused on this some reviewers have said all Zotac cards are lifetime limited warranty. Newegg has this card listed as having a two year warranty. Either way I hope I don't ever need it.
5. Fast and cool- Plays all of my PC games on high settings 1920x1080 (single monitor). Played BF3 beta for hours and the card never got above 65C.

Cons: 1. Still expensive even if it is the cheapest 580 out there.
2. Prince of Persia won't work on Windows 7- Not at all worth docking an egg, but apparently the ubisoft game launcher doesn't like windows 7? I researched it briefly last night apparently there's a fix for it, but I probably won't bother as BF3 and Batman are coming out soon.

Other Thoughts: I'll update this review if anything changes.

Pros: - Incredibly fast, can run any game of today at max settings no problem
- Lots of great features using NVIDIA software to enhance games that may not self-enhancements (manual AFx16 works great in Oblivion!)
- Got it at a great price ($390)

Cons: - Card freezes once every 2-3 days on me. Granted it has never frozen in-game or in-application, but rather when on the desktop doing nothing. There is a chance this is a power supply issue of course, but that doesn't mean the card isn't freezing. It's simply easier to restart every few days (under 1 minute with SSD) than to spend hours taking stuff apart and testing if a new PSU could solve this.
- SLI mode for 2 of these cards does not work for MANY people. DO NOT BUY ZOTAC GTX 580 AS A SECOND CARD FOR SLI.

Other Thoughts: Fact of the matter is, they deserve to lose 1 full egg for truly not supporting SLI on two of their cards; that's pretty pathetic if you ask me. They replace your cards with EVGA cards if you complain about it; more or less admitting to the problem.

Pros: This board will do it all. There are only a couple games out right now that will make it sweat and even then it still produces playable framerates. There's nothing more to say. This hardware is built to please (your eyes, not your wallet). Crank up the settings and feast.

Had no problems with installation or drivers. Can't comment on the cooler, as my cards are in a water loop.

Cons: You get what you pay for. If you're buying this card then power consumption (its hungry) probably isn't a concern and neither is your budget. Just know that it will get hot, even with the new vapor cooler.

If you're using a smaller case pay attention to the dimensions. Its not as big as some other cards on the market but it takes up some room (10 inches).

Make sure your PSU is up to par. Newegg's power supply calculator is pretty handy.

Other Thoughts: For those who think two is better than one you've never been more right. The GF110 scales so sweetly in SLI they should sell them in pairs. If you can afford 2 of these cards you won't have to worry about framerates or quality settings for a long time. Not until someone puts as much time into making a game as nvidia put into developing their chip.

Pros: This card was an awesome card. It truely was... the GTX 580 is a monster. I will be looking to replace this card with an eVGA GTX 580. I gave 2 stars because while it worked, it was sweet.

Cons: This card lasted just over 6 months for me. Now in OCCT i get 50k errors on the GPU test for just 6 minutes. FuMark and 3DMark make all kinds of pretty polygon blocks and crazy jittery lines all over the place when the tests run. You can imagine what playing an actual game is like--constant driver crash. I have done all the reinstalls, different driver combos, testing of power supply, etc. The result is clear--this card is dead.

Other Thoughts: I thought Zotac could be a replacement company since BFG went bankrupt and I had luck with their miniITX boards. Now I think I'll be heading over to eVGA.

Hope this helps someone.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear DanShady,
I'm sorry to hear that. If you haven't done so already, I recommend you contact our RMA department at rma@zotacusa.com. You may be eligible for a replacement or repairs. Once again, I apologize for the inconvenience you have experienced. I hope this issue can be resolved.

Pros: Here are some stats for those who know what they mean. I find things like this helpful in making decisions anyway. This is in combination with win 7-64, 6GB triple channel CL7 1066MHz RAM, and Core-i7 940 (Gen 1) at stock speeds.

Furmark Single GPU standard settings 4506 (Furmark is forcibly capped by Nvidia drivers to prevent burnout)
3DMark'06 19621
FFXIV Bench HIGH 4685
FFXIV Bench LOW 4955
Unigine Heaven 2.5 basic DX11 on highest 1920x1080 settings (shaders high, tessellation extreme, aniso 16, AA 8x, full screen, 1920x1080, v-sync off, texture quality high, trilinear filtering, AO on, refraction on, volumetric shadows on) Score: 748, 29.7fps, min 13.6fps, max 75.8fps

Cons: Does get fairly loud when at high load for prolonged periods of time.