 "ZOTAC GTX 570 Graphics Card")
After the impressive performance of the GTX 590 from ZOTAC, today we have their more affordable GTX 570 for review. The card is based on the reference design from Nvidia and even has the same clock speeds so the performance should be a little slower than the Palit and Asus cards we tested as they were factory overclocked. Let’s see how it performs.
Design and Features
The card measures about 10.5-inches in length so you’ll need a decent sized cabinet for it. ZOTAC has followed the reference design very closely and apart from their sticker, it’s pretty much identical to Nvidia’s description. The GTX 570 uses a vapor chamber cooler so the fan doesn’t have to be very large. ZOTAC bundles along a free game as well, Prince of Persia : The Forgotten Sands.
Same as the reference design
For connectivity we have two dual-link DVI ports and a mini-HDMI port. You get a mini-HDMI to HDMI adapter bundled along. Apart from the drivers and user manuals, we also get some GPGPU software like Badaboom, vReveal and Firestorm, which is their overclocking program.
No problems with connectivity
The core runs at a speed of 732MHz whereas the 1.2GB GDDR5 memory runs at 3800MHz (effective speed). Overall the card is built well and the plastic covering for the heatsink does a good job of chanelling the warm air directly outside the case.
Test Rig Specifications
- Processor: Intel Core i7-2600K CPU @ 3.40 GHz
- Motherboard: GIGABYTE P67A-UD3R
- Memory: Corsair Dominator GT 6 GB DDR3 (3 x 2 GB)
- Hard drive: WD Velociraptor 300 GB
- GPU: ZOTAC GTX 570
- PSU: Cooler Master Silent Pro 1000W
- Driver Version : 275.33
Performance
All benchmark scores are an average of three runs. It’s no surprise that the ZOTAC does not perform as well as the Palit and the Asus card. The lower clock speeds is definitely noticeable in real world gaming tests as the frame rate drops in all the games that we tested although not by too much.
Performance is a little low due to the slower clock speeds
There’s a good 5% difference on average when compared to the overclocked cards. Even under stress, the card manages to maintain a very low noise level. In a quiet room too, you can’t hear it running.
Good DX11 performance
Coming to the temperatures, we ran FurMark 1.8.2 and this is what we observed.
**IDLE :**44C
**LOAD:**81C
The temperatures are in check and doesn’t cross 81C. The fan is slightly audible here but again is no where noisy. The good thing about the design of the card is that the hot air is always dumped directly outside the cabinet so the ambient temperature inside doesn’t rise too much. This ensures other components dont overheat as well whcih is good.
Verdict
Since this is the standard edition of the GTX 570, ZOTAC has priced it at Rs.20,000 which is about 4K lower than the Palit card. While the performance is a bit lower you should be able to overclock the card to get a bit more out of it. Plus ZOTAC also bundles a free game which is a nice bonus, something other manufacturers don’t do too often. Overall, if you are looking for a strong DX11 graphics card under 20K, then the GTX 570 will serve you well for at least another two years.
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