[bluefluid]

ZOTAC GeForce GTX 580 AMP! Edition 1536 MB

ZOTAC's GeForce GTX 580 AMP! Edition does not bring many improvements to the table. The card is a complete implementation of NVIDIA's reference design with higher clocks. Its increased clock speed of 815 MHz, vs. 772 MHz on the reference design, can deliver a small performance improvement in our benchmarks - up around 3%. If you are willing to do some additional overclocking then you can expect a higher clock headroom on the AMP! Edition than on other reference design cards. According to ZOTAC, some special binning is performed at the factory where GPUs are picked that can handle the highest clocks. Compared to other reference designs, which max out at around 830 MHz, the 895 MHz on the AMP! Edition are a good improvement.
Whereas the GTX 480 AMP! Edition used a Zalman cooler, ZOTAC's GTX 580 AMP! comes only with the reference cooler. I talked to ZOTAC about the cooler and they mentioned that they were planning on using a different cooling solution but at the end it didn't work out for what were mostly political reasons beyond ZOTAC's influence.
Overall the GTX 580 AMP! Edition is a solid card but feels a bit too expensive with a $50 price premium over the normal clocked cards.

MSI Announces New N500GTX Twin Frozr II Series Graphics Cards

MSI's Exclusive Twin Frozr II Cooling Design
The MSI N500 Twin Frozr II series graphics cards feature the advanced Twin Frozr II Thermal Design. By utilizing its engineering expertise, MSI has created the ultimate Thermal Design that decreases operating temperatures by up to 20°C. The GPU spreader is covered with a large surface area heat sink with a copper base, ensuring the best possible thermal transfer surface. Surrounding components like Memory and PWM components are covered by a large unibody metal heat sink. Additionally, with MSI's SuperPipe heat pipe technology, excess heat is transferred quickly to a high density aluminum cooling fin assembly. The low-noise fan setup, which includes two temperature-controlled 8cm PWM fans, ensures excellent air flow to all parts of the Twin Frozr II Thermal Design while reducing sound levels by up to 8.4dB.

Izvor: techpowerup