GeForce GTX 580 3GB vs Radeon RX 480 4GB

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon RX 480 4GB, which comes with a core clock speed of 1120 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1750 MHz. It also features a 256-bit memory bus, and uses a 14 nm design. It is comprised of 2304 SPUs, 144 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon RX 480 4GB		150 Watts
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		244 Watts
	Difference: 94 Watts (63%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the Radeon RX 480 4GB should in theory be a little bit better than the GeForce GTX 580 3GB overall. (explain)

Radeon RX 480 4GB		229376 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		192384 MB/sec
	Difference: 36992 (19%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon RX 480 4GB will be a lot (approximately 226%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 580 3GB. (explain)

Radeon RX 480 4GB		161280 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		49408 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 111872 (226%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 580 3GB is the winner, not by a very large margin though. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		37056 Mpixels/sec
Radeon RX 480 4GB		35840 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1216 (3%)

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 data (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.