NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 is a Fermi 2.0 architecture GPU built on TSMC's 40 nm process, with 3,000 million transistors on a 520 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 5.8 million per square millimeter. It belongs to the GeForce 500 generation, succeeding the GeForce 400 and preceding the GeForce 600. The card features 480 shading units, 60 texture mapping units, and 40 ROPs, producing a pixel rate of 21.96 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 43.92 GTexel/s. Its FP32 compute performance is 1,405.4 GFLOPS. Released on December 6, 2010, the GTX 570 is now end-of-life, and its launch MSRP was 349 USD.

Power and Cooling

The GTX 570 has a thermal design power (TDP) of 219 W. The suggested power supply is 550 W, and the card requires two 6-pin PCIe power connectors. This indicates a substantial power draw that demands a robust PSU, particularly for systems with multiple drives or high-end CPUs. The dual-slot cooler occupies two expansion slots, and the card's length is 267 mm (10.5 inches), which may require careful case clearance. The 550 W recommendation provides headroom for the rest of the system, while the two 6-pin connectors directly supply the GPU. Users upgrading older machines should verify that their power supply has both connectors and sufficient wattage, as the 219 W TDP is above the threshold for many entry-level PSUs. The dual-slot design allows for a larger heatsink and fan, which is appropriate for the thermal load, but the physical footprint means compact cases are unlikely to accommodate it.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The GTX 570 does not include dedicated ray tracing cores or tensor cores, as those fields are null. This means hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI-based features such as DLSS are not available. The API support includes DirectX 12 (feature level 11_0) and OpenGL 4.6. DirectX 12 support is present but limited to the 11_0 feature level, which may restrict certain modern rendering techniques that rely on higher feature levels. Vulkan support is not listed, so the card may not expose the Vulkan API. The display outputs consist of two DVI ports and one mini-HDMI 1.3a, allowing multi-monitor setups but lacking modern DisplayPort connectivity. The absence of RT and tensor cores places the GTX 570 firmly in the pre-ray tracing era, relying on traditional rasterization. For gaming, this means no hardware acceleration for real-time ray tracing effects, and for compute workloads, no tensor core acceleration for machine learning tasks. The DirectX 12 support, while nominally present, is effectively a compatibility measure rather than a full-featured implementation, given the 11_0 feature level.

Memory Subsystem

The GTX 570 is equipped with 1280 MB of GDDR5 memory on a 320-bit bus, yielding a memory bandwidth of 152.0 GB/s. The memory clock is 950 MHz, with an effective data rate of 3.8 Gbps. The 1280 MB capacity is relatively small by contemporary standards, which can be a bottleneck for high-resolution textures and large frame buffers at 1440p or 4K. The 320-bit bus width is substantial, but the bandwidth of 152 GB/s is moderate; the combination of capacity and bandwidth determines how quickly textures and geometry can be streamed. For 1080p gaming, the capacity and bandwidth are adequate, but higher resolutions may cause texture swapping and performance drops. The pixel rate of 21.96 GPixel/s and texture rate of 43.92 GTexel/s are tied to the memory subsystem's ability to feed the ROPs and TMUs, but the memory capacity is the primary limiting factor for high-resolution workloads. The GDDR5 type is standard for the era, but the 1280 MB allocation is unusual—most high-end cards of that generation offered 1 GB or 2 GB—making the GTX 570 a middle-ground option.

How It Compares

The GTX 570's nearest rivals, based on average Geekbench OpenCL scores, are the AMD Radeon RX 580, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950, AMD Radeon Pro 455, and NVIDIA P106-090. The RX 580 scores 13,559, essentially identical to the GTX 570's 13,564, with a delta of 0%. This means the two cards perform within a negligible margin in this benchmark. The RX 580 is a much newer card, yet the GTX 570 matches its OpenCL performance, which speaks to the GTX 570's compute capabilities. The GTX 950 scores 13,549, just 0.1% lower, placing the GTX 570 slightly ahead. The GTX 950 is a lower-tier card from the same vendor, and the GTX 570 edges it out by a hair. The Radeon Pro 455 scores 13,416, which is 1.1% lower, giving the GTX 570 a modest edge. The Radeon Pro 455 is a mobile workstation GPU, and the GTX 570 outperforms it. The P106-090 scores 13,716, which is 1.1% higher than the GTX 570, making the P106-090 the only rival to outperform it. The P106-090 is a mining-oriented card, and it slightly leads. These deltas are small, indicating that the GTX 570 holds its own against these mid-range and entry-level cards from later generations.

Benchmark Performance

In the Geekbench OpenCL benchmark, the GTX 570 achieves a score of 13,564, placing it at the 54th percentile of all GPUs. This means it outperforms about 54% of the database's entries, a solid mid-pack position. Compared to its nearest rivals, the performance deltas are minimal. The RX 580 scores 13,559, a 0% difference, so the GTX 570 is effectively tied with a card that is several generations newer. The GTX 950 scores 13,549, and the GTX 570 is 0.1% faster. The Radeon Pro 455 scores 13,416, and the GTX 570 is 1.1% faster. The P106-090 scores 13,716, and the GTX 570 is 1.1% slower. These tight margins indicate that the GTX 570's compute performance is competitive with a range of GPUs from different vendors and eras. The 54th percentile ranking underscores that while the GTX 570 is not a top-tier performer, it remains relevant for certain workloads. The FP32 compute of 1,405.4 GFLOPS aligns with the OpenCL score, as OpenCL often stresses raw compute throughput. The card's pixel rate of 21.96 GPixel/s and texture rate of 43.92 GTexel/s are also indicative of its rendering capabilities, but the benchmark specifically measures OpenCL compute, which is why the GTX 570 can match or beat newer cards that may have lower compute throughput despite better gaming performance. The 0.1% delta against the GTX 950 is within run-to-run variance, and the 1.1% differences against the Radeon Pro 455 and P106-090 are similarly small. In practical terms, the GTX 570's OpenCL performance is indistinguishable from the RX 580, and it is only marginally behind the P106-090. This suggests that for compute-heavy tasks such as OpenCL-based rendering or scientific workloads, the GTX 570 remains a viable option even against much newer hardware, though its 1280 MB memory capacity and lack of modern features may limit its appeal for current applications. The 54th percentile also reflects the card's age; many newer GPUs score higher, but the GTX 570 sits comfortably above the median, indicating that it outperforms a majority of the database's entries.