The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 Tech Report

Hot on the heels of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 is the new NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 and it has arrived just in time for the Christmas shopping season! It's based on the same GF110 GPU that was used in the GeForce GTX 580. Like its bigger brother, the GeForce GTX 570 will also be known as "The Tank". That makes it the third "Tank" in NVIDIA's arsenal.

If you have no idea what the heck we are talking about, you should read our NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 Tech Report. It was at the GeForce GTS 450 launch when NVIDIA started their rather bizarre scheme of giving their graphics cards pet names. The GeForce GTX 480 was "The Tank", while the GeForce GTX 460 was "The Hunter" and the GeForce GTS 450, "The Sniper".

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 was also called "The Tank" but with "a weapons upgrade, with some shiny new armor to go along with it!" This time, NVIDIA didn't specify what kind of Tank the GeForce GTX 570 would be, but we assume it would be something like "The Tank with a slightly less powerful weapons upgrade and a thinner but still shiny new armor to go along with it!"

Jokes about the naming scheme aside, there is a likely reason for NVIDIA's reticence on the GeForce GTX 570's pet name - the new NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 effectively replaces the "original Tank", the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 which was launched just 8 months ago. The "new Tank" is not only faster but also uses less power, runs cooler and costs US$ 150 (30%) less than the "original Tank" at launch.

One can either marvel at how fast NVIDIA managed to improve their GPUs, or shudder at the futility (and some say, stupidity) of paying top dollar for the highest-end graphics card when a faster and better card can be purchased for far less money if only one waited a few more months...

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