I am not impressed and for a short time had a few high hopes but after all it is still a Fermi card just built better. The cooler well they should have used copper for the fins instead of cheap aluminum and that would have allowed them to use a smaller block if they chose to. The mid plate is of decent design while the lack of a protective black plate is another let down for such an expensive card. As for overclocking there is not much to be said but then again I expected more my self from this card when reference design cards can get close to this on water.

Considering GTX480 came out in April 2010 and GTX580 is barely better in terms of performance, there is no way it makes sense to buy a $500+ GTX580 today when Kepler, NV's 28nm GPU, and HD7000 series for that matter, are likely less than 6 months away.

These top-of-the-line versions should be released very close to original launch, not at the end of life of a product. Who in their right mind will blow $600 US on a card that's going to be beaten a $350 next generation card in just 6 months from now? Or alternatively, you'll be able to get 40-50% more performance for $600 in 6 months from now.