NVIDIA partner Inno3D is looking to breathe new life into the impressive GeForce GTX 580 GPU by outfitting a card with a double-sized frame-buffer, up from the default 1,536MB to 3,072MB.
While an increase in the buffer sure looks impressive on paper, the pragmatic benefits of such a move aren't wholly clear. When quizzed, Inno3D's reps suggested that card, whose frequencies weren't disclosed, would benchmark five or so per cent faster than a regular version, presumably at high resolutions with NVIDIA's 3D trickery turned on.
The extra local memory is likely to attract a price premium of $60, according to Inno3D, and samples will be made available shortly.
Here's Inno3D's Derek Ng giving us the skinny on the card:
The Hawk is otherwise identical to the cards in the pre-overclocked range. This means an in-house-designed triple-fan cooling solution and purportedly low temperatures.
In other news, Inno3D is gearing up for the launch of the GeForce GTX 590 - a dual-GPU graphics card with two GF110-class GPUs in situ - but will only be selling models in its native territory of Hong Kong, which is a shame for enthusiasts wanting an iChiLL-branded version in Europe.
