GeForce GTX 580 3GB vs Radeon R9 280X

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon R9 280X, which has a GPU core clock speed of 850 MHz, and 3072 MB of GDDR5 RAM running at 1500 MHz through a 384-bit bus. It also is comprised of 2048 Stream Processors, 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
Radeon R9 280X		250 Watts
	Difference: 6 Watts (2%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon R9 280X will be 50% faster than the GeForce GTX 580 3GB overall, because of its higher data rate. (explain)

Radeon R9 280X		288000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		192384 MB/sec
	Difference: 95616 (50%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 280X is a lot (approximately 120%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 580 3GB. (explain)

Radeon R9 280X		108800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		49408 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 59392 (120%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB will be a lot (approximately 36%) faster with regards to FSAA than the Radeon R9 280X, and capable of handling higher resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		37056 Mpixels/sec
Radeon R9 280X		27200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 9856 (36%)

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 information (in units of MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card 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 processed per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core clock speed. 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 also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.