Got my 580 Vanilla yesterday and i'm planning on running on stock volts, 800 core, 1600 shader and 2010 memory clock, i believe it doesn't count as overclocking -.-

I had that (except the memory was at 2048) at 1.025V out of the box, so it might be OK. You gotta test it though, for example at stock volts Crysis 2 was crashing.

Oh, and no matter what I do, the benchmark tool is crashing (you know the bit where the splash screen stretches out). The game itself works perfectly so I doubt its overclock related.

OK guys, a little update, as my overclocking situation has changed slightly.
For the CPU- 4.4GHz constant, at 1.336V max
For the RAM- 1866MHz, timings 10-9-10-24-1.35V
For the GPU- 900MHz core, 4400MHz memory, 1.1V
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
OK, here are the Far Cry 2 benches:
Settings: Demo(Ranch Small), 1920x1080 (120Hz), D3D10, Fixed Time Step(No), Disable Artificial Intelligence(No), Full Screen, Anti-Aliasing(8x), VSync(No), Overall Quality(Custom), Vegetation(Very High), Shading(Ultra High), Terrain(Ultra High), Geometry(Ultra High), Post FX(High), Texture(Ultra High), Shadow(Ultra High), Ambient(High), Hdr(Yes), Bloom(Yes), Fire(Very High), Physics(Very High), RealTrees(Very High)

Before: Average Framerate: 111.56, Max. Framerate: 169.37, Min. Framerate: 81.57

After: Average Framerate: 122.73, Max. Framerate: 190.86, Min. Framerate: 90.50
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
And the Crysis 2 benches:
Using Adrenaline Crysis 2 Benchmark Tool, Settings:
Quality (Ultra), Resolution (1080p), AA (4x), Map (Variable), Runs (1), API (DX11), Edge AA (Laplace Edge Detection), Hi-res Textures (Yes)


Before:
Map 1---Times Square---5000 samples, Min FPS 3.2, Avg FPS 54.8
Map 2---Central Park---5000 samples, Min FPS 6.0, Avg FPS 47.9
Map 3---Downtown---4609 samples, Min FPS 15.1, Avg FPS 50.8

After:
Map 1---Times Square---5000 samples, Min FPS 4.5, Avg 60.9
Map 2---Central Park---5000 samples, Min FPS 6.9, Avg 53.9
Map 3---Downtown---4609 samples, Min FPS 2.4, Avg 56.2
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
So this is a CPU overclock of 19% over the previous Turbo level.
And a GPU overclock of 12.5% and 7.5% over the previous Core and Memory clocks respectively.
In Far Cry 2, this has led to a 10% increase in the average framerate.
In Crysis 2, this has led to an 11%/12.5%/11% increase in the average framerate, respective of Maps 1/2/3.

Will be doing the Dirt3 one a bit later, got some Napoleon Total War to play
Which by the way gives my graphics card a harder time than Crysis2 can. Especially with all the mods


In terms of analysis, I am not thinking the CPU makes much of a difference, nor should it.
Its also very interesting that a Core overclock of 12.5% on the GPU is leading to around 11% increase in framerates.

Taken from my project log.

I just did a 1012MHz run for you mate.

[IMG]http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad335/SIEJO/Crysis2Tool.jpg[/IMG]

Nice scores
This is quite strange, they expect such low frame rates hmm

How do you mean bud? Expects low fps? TBH im not sure how it records such low frame rate as it never shutters once!

As in they expect a 40.2fps average at 1080p with everything maxed out, but from everyone I've seen with a 580, they get higher than that I guess its not that low, more that its lower than what the card can do

I will getting either the MSI Forzr II or the Gainward Phantom .... should last be a few years

It should do, nobody knows how tech is going to go in the next few years. These things overclock like beasts though

hey, i got my evga 580 w/ stock cooler and stuff, and it runs at an average of 84-85 degrees Celsius while playing bf2, i haven't tried stress testing it as i'm scared it will go over 90 degrees, is it a normal temperature or what? (it's currently at 772 core and 1544 shader )

So that's the stock cooler? I mean they are still good just past 90, but something definitely seems as though its up. Running 1.1V through the GPU @900MHz core the max temp I've got is 72 and that was after 6 hours of gaming
Those temps look too high to me, might be an idea to contact EVGA. Make sure you haven't left something on the card in an important place or anything, like a piece of plastic.
Is that BF2 or Bad Company 2? If its BF2 then alarm bells should be ringing. What are temps in more demanding games?
Also try turning on V-Sync, maybe your card is rendering stupid amounts of frames and creating unneccessary heat...