GeForce GTX 480 vs GeForce GTX 580 3GB

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 580 3GB, which features core clock speeds of 772 MHz on the GPU, and 1002 MHz on the 3072 MB of GDDR5 RAM. It features 512 SPUs as well as 64 TAUs and 48 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		244 Watts
GeForce GTX 480		250 Watts
	Difference: 6 Watts (2%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB should in theory perform a bit faster than the GeForce GTX 480 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		192384 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 480		177408 MB/sec
	Difference: 14976 (8%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB is just a bit (approximately 18%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GTX 480. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		49408 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 480		42000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 7408 (18%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB is a little bit (approximately 10%) faster with regards to anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 480, and able to handle higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		37056 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 480		33600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3456 (10%)

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.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the max amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.