GeForce GTX 580 3GB vs Geforce GTX 780

Intro

Compare all that to the Geforce GTX 780, which comes with core clock speeds of 863 MHz on the GPU, and 1502 MHz on the 3072 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 2304 SPUs as well as 192 Texture Address Units and 48 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		244 Watts
Geforce GTX 780		250 Watts
	Difference: 6 Watts (2%)

Memory Bandwidth

The Geforce GTX 780 should in theory be much faster than the GeForce GTX 580 3GB overall. (explain)

Geforce GTX 780		288384 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		192384 MB/sec
	Difference: 96000 (50%)

Texel Rate

The Geforce GTX 780 will be quite a bit (approximately 235%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 580 3GB. (explain)

Geforce GTX 780		165696 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		49408 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 116288 (235%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the Geforce GTX 780 is a better choice, but it probably won't make a huge difference. (explain)

Geforce GTX 780		41424 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		37056 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 4368 (12%)

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: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card could possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount 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 filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.