GeForce GTX 580 3GB vs Radeon R9 290X

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon R9 290X, which features a core clock frequency of 800 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1250 MHz. It also makes use of a 512-bit bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It is comprised of 2816 SPUs, 176 TAUs, and 64 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		244 Watts
Radeon R9 290X		300 Watts
	Difference: 56 Watts (23%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the Radeon R9 290X should in theory be quite a bit superior to the GeForce GTX 580 3GB in general. (explain)

Radeon R9 290X		320000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		192384 MB/sec
	Difference: 127616 (66%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 290X will be quite a bit (about 185%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GTX 580 3GB. (explain)

Radeon R9 290X		140800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		49408 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 91392 (185%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon R9 290X should be much (more or less 38%) better at FSAA than the GeForce GTX 580 3GB, and also capable of handling higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

Radeon R9 290X		51200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		37056 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 14144 (38%)

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 largest amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core 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 in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour 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 output rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.