14 DAY TRIAL // I think that is safe to say that by now everybody has become well accustomed to Point of View's TGT tuned graphics cards, so I will skip any introduction and step right over to the newly released POV/TGT GeForce GTX 580 “Beast” GPU that comes ready for being water-cooled.
Just introduced, the Beast comes with a 9mm slim-line copper water-cooling block that allows those fortunate enough to use such a cooling setup for their computers to install the card in their current water-cooling loop without having to install a GPU block on their own.
But apart from the specially designed cooling solution employed, POV also came with a few other tricks, the company stating that all GPUs that are used inside the Beast series of graphics cards are hand picked in order to provide the best performance possible.
As this usually translates into overclocking headroom, the GeForce GTX 580 Beast is run at an 855 MHz core clock out of the box, compared to the regular 772MHz frequency the GTX 580 usually runs at.
Although POV calls this the “world’s first GeForce GTX 580 based 3D processor card running stable at 850 MHz,” the GTX 580 is capable of even more impressive feats when it comes down to overclocking, as we have also demonstrated in our overclocking guide where we were able to reach core speeds in excess of 900MHz by using air cooling alone.
Compared to regular GTX 580 graphics cards, the Beast also comes with somewhat improved memory frequency, as the GDDR5 memory is run at 4104 compared to the regular 4008MHz.
Although I wouldn't call this a worthwhile memory overclock, POV seems to not agree with me and priced the Beast at an impressive €729, quite an important price premium over the regular €479,99 asked for the GTX 580.
And although one could argue this is actually a water-cooled part, the EVGA GTX 580 FTW Hydro Copper also comes with a water block installed and is available at a lower €695.90 price point.