NVidia GeForce GTX 580: Specification leaked on web

In a move which can be presumed to have either been an accident or a well-timed bit of PR machine stirring, NVidia has posted details of its GeForce GTX 580 graphics card – only to then take them down moments later.

Nevertheless, the details have found their way onto the Internet thanks to screenshots of the specification sheet and photos which purport to be of the actual card itself. The card's specification is rumoured to include 512 CUDA stream processing units and 2GB of DDR5 memory, providing memory data rates of 4GB/s. The core clock will reportedly be 772MHz and the card will have a shader clock of 1554MHz.

Essentially, we're talking a powerful new card indeed which will be competing with high-end models from arch-rival AMD and while no official word of its release has yet to be made, it's expected to land before the festive season gets into full swing.

It's not surprising to learn that NVidia is planning on releasing a new high-end card, given AMD's recent launch of a new set of Radeon HD models, and while full details are yet to be laid bare, it is known that the GTX 580 will support the company's 3D Vision technology. This was made official by NVidia in late October, meaning the card will support 3D gaming and movies.

Meanwhile, the company is celebrating providing the power behind the world's fastest supercomputer. China's Tianhe-1A supercomputer uses 7,168 NVidia Tesla M2050 GPUs and over 14,000 processors.