Overclocking

We must admit we expected better OC potential from GTX 580 3GB Phantom. Although it is possible to meddle with GPU voltages, it didn’t help us achieve stable operation beyond 880MHz.

Note that we managed to push the GPU to 940MHz using voltage of 1250mV and we even did some gaming, but pixel error free image was only possible at 880MHz. Maximum memory clock was 2140MHz (4280 effectively).

Temperatures and Noise

We know that the card owes its name to the Phantom cooling but Phantom will definitely not have an easy task fighting Nvidia’s pretty nice reference cooling. When idle, Phantom is almost inaudible. When the card is under load, you can hear the three fans but the “loudness” is within acceptable levels. Truth be told, Phantom is slightly louder than reference cards when under load, but in turn provides 9°C lower temperatures. You can always manually decrease the RPM at the expense of thermals and Gainward’s Phantom definitely has headroom for experimentation and finding your ideal settings.

Power Consumption

Gainward’s GTX 580 3GB Phantom will consume about 20W more than the reference cards, which is a result of the slight overclock.