GeForce GTX 580 3GB vs Geforce GTX 690

Intro

Compare all of that to the Geforce GTX 690, which has a clock speed of 915 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1502 MHz. It also features a 256-bit bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It features 1536 SPUs, 128 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		244 Watts
Geforce GTX 690		300 Watts
	Difference: 56 Watts (23%)

Memory Bandwidth

The Geforce GTX 690 should theoretically perform a lot faster than the GeForce GTX 580 3GB overall. (explain)

Geforce GTX 690		384512 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		192384 MB/sec
	Difference: 192128 (100%)

Texel Rate

The Geforce GTX 690 will be much (about 374%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 580 3GB. (explain)

Geforce GTX 690		234240 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		49408 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 184832 (374%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the Geforce GTX 690 is a better choice, by a large margin. (explain)

Geforce GTX 690		58560 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		37056 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 21504 (58%)

Please note that the above 'benchmarks' are all just theoretical - the results were calculated based on the card's specifications, and real-world performance may (and probably will) vary at least a bit.

One or more cards in this comparison are multi-core. This means that their bandwidth, texel and pixel rates are theoretically doubled - this does not mean the card will actually perform twice as fast, but only that it should in theory be able to. Actual game benchmarks will give a more accurate idea of what it's capable of.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.