14 DAY TRIAL // After just the previous week EVGA announced the introduction of a 3GB edition of the GTX 580, the company is now getting ready to ship a water-cooled version of this model, dubbed the GeForce GTX 580 Hydro Copper 3072MB 2.
The card uses the same Swiftech full coverage water block as that installed on the Hydro Copper FTW GeForce GTX 580 model.
This features a base plate that is made of chrome-plated electrolytic C110 copper and occupies just a single slot inside the system chassis.
To further stiffen the board and to cool the components that are placed on the back of the PCB, EVGA has also fitted the Hydro Copper 3072MB 2 with an aluminum black plate.
Despite of the advanced cooling system, EVGA has decided to run the card at Nvidia's stock frequencies, so users who want to benefit from the improved performances offered by water cooling are left to overclock the graphics card on their own.
This shouldn't be that much of a problem as the FTW version, that uses the same cooler, has its GPU factory clocked at 850MHz while the memory runs at 1049MHz (4196MHz data rate).
The GeForce GTX 580 3072MB Hydro Copper 2 is not yet available for purchase, but EVGA has already listed the card on its website for $739.99. This makes it only $40 more expensive than the water-cooled FTW GTX 580.
Nvidia's GeForce GTX 580 is based on the GF110 core and it packs 512 stream processors, 64 texture units, 48 ROP units, and a 384-bit memory interface that is usually linked to a 1.5GB GDDR5 frame buffer.
The stock clocks of the graphics card are set at 772MHz for the GPU and 1002MHz (4008MHz effective) for the memory. (via HardwareLuxx)