Board Layout

EVGA designed the GTX580 Classified with four different variations in mind. There are 1.5Gb and 3GB versions with each having both an air and water-cooled version. The model we are testing today is the 3Gb air cooled version. The air cooled versions massive heatsink stands out considerably with its extra tall cooler standing over top of the standard reference design, as you can see in the below image.

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The added height gives the cooler another area to vent, pushing air over the SLI bridges. Depending on the case this could work perfectly as some cases have a vent directly above there PCI slots. Other cases however don’t have this vent, meaning the extra hot air would be pushed into your case.

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Where that added space really helps is in the size of the fan built into the cooler. Frankly the Classified’s fan is gigantic; at 8CM it’s larger than anything else on the market. The fan itself is takes up most of the heatsink. What’s interesting is the use of reference “style” fan at all, but for those of you who prefer your video card push the air out rather than just around the case this is still the best design.

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One of the other major changes in the GTX580 Classifieds design is in the power connector configuration. When compared to the reference design you can see they added another 8pin connecter giving you a total of two 8 pin connection and one 6 pin. This is more than you will find on any other video card and when running in SLI configurations you will struggle to find enough connections to hook everything up. Thank goodness they included a few adapters along with each card

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Similar to our reference design and like most other EVGA products the GTX580 Classified has a black PCB. Taking a look at the back of the card you can see that everything from the rear I/O panel to just past the GPU mounting bracket are very similar in design to the reference design. Beyond that you can see EVGA’s 14 + 3 phase power design that will help deliver over 1000Watts if needed. The only thing missing is a nice backplate but EVGA decided not to include one standard because they cause overheating issues in multi card configurations. You can still pick one up if you would like directly from them and it will sport the Classified logo in case you are wondering.

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On the top edge you can see a small switch with normal and OC on each side. This is how you turn on the OC BIOS, turning off thermal monitoring for those looking to do extreme overclocking using Ln2.

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Two SLI connections mean support for up to quad-SLI. This is also the only section of the PCB that is the same height as a standard GTX580. The reason of course is to make sure its compatible with other 3Gb GTX580 cards, not just matching Classified cards.

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The back panel comes standard with one of EVGA’s high flow brackets that allow for more air flow than the stock back plate, something needed with that massive fan blowing air out of the back. For connections they have kept it very simple with just two DVI-I plugs and an odd looking proprietary plug for their EVBot overclocking tool. No HDMI or mini HDMI plugs to worry about, this card keeps its focus on only what you will need for top overclocking performance.

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Topping it all off on the front of the card is the Geforce GTX 580 logo with EVGA’s Classified badge below it.

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Removing five screws will remove the shroud off of the GTX 580’s cooler reveling the heatsink and fan. In this picture you can see the touch cooling, just like the reference design but there are additional cooling fins added to the top for a boost in cooling.

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In this photo the fan looks a lot less intimidating. You can see how the fan pulls the air in and with the help of the shroud; it forces the air across the heatsink and out the PCI slot. In this photo you can also see the additional fins in the bottom and top right corners. The coolers metal baseplate has these fins to help do a little additional cooling.

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garfi3ld's Avatar
garfi3ld replied the topic: #20102 28 Sep 2011 00:04
A monster from EVGA! Check it out guys
Wingless92's Avatar
Wingless92 replied the topic: #20105 28 Sep 2011 00:48
Love the review Wes. Great to see us doing more "High End" GPU reviews.

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