The ASUS GTX580 follows Nvidia’s reference design, sporting a black shroud with green accents depicting their traditional colours. ASUS have opted for a clean, simplistic look, preferring to place their badge in the center as opposed to using stickers to differentiate their card. The front end of the shroud is slightly slanted and lowered to accommodate the fan and to allow more air to flow through in tight SLI configurations. Unlike the Nvidia GTX480, the top of the metal heatsink has not been left exposed, most like because of the new cooler type being employed, which we will look at later on. Very conveniently, all the ports and connectors are protected by a blue plastic cover. The card is approximately 26.8cm in lengthm 6mm short of AMD’s HD6970.


The back of the card reveals the black PCB that has become favoured for its greater appeal in recent times. There is no backplate installed for additional cooling, indicating Nvidia’s confidence in a cooler and more efficient running card. Part of the VRM circuitry can also be seen at the back, making greater use of space to place the MOSFETs. The shroud below is attached using torx screws, shying away from the traditional ones used. The heatsink on the other hand is secured using spring loaded screws.


The fan uses a finned blower design to push air towards the rear of the card and hence out of the case. The fan supports PWM functionality and can be controlled by users or temperature based profiles. The fan is similar to those found on most blower style cooler, even ones from AMD such as that used on the reference HD6970.


On the side of the card are two SLI connectors. The GTX580 can be used in a quad-SLI setup should the motherboard permit (NF200 chipset required). If not tri-SLI is also supported.


Like the GTX480 and AMD’s HD6970, the GTX580 has one 6 pin and one 8 pin PCIe power connectors, immediately suggesting high power draw. These are conveniently situated on the side rather than at the end to ensure that the cables do not get in the way of HDD cages or other components. One dual 6 pin-to-8 pin adapter is bundled for power supplies lacking 8 pin power cables.


Nvidia are not as generous as AMD when it comes to connectivity. The ASUS card has two DVI connectors on the I/O panel and a single mini-HDMI port supporting the latest 1.4a standard. The ports also support Nvidia Surround technology, without requiring DisplayPort, as long as another GTX580 is used in SLI.