GeForce GTX 580 3GB vs GeForce GTX 950

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 950, which has GPU clock speed of 1024 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 memory set to run at 1652 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also features 768 SPUs, 48 Texture Address Units, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 950		90 Watts
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		244 Watts
	Difference: 154 Watts (171%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 580 3GB should in theory be quite a bit superior to the GeForce GTX 950 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		192384 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 950		105728 MB/sec
	Difference: 86656 (82%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB is a little bit (approximately 1%) better at AF than the GeForce GTX 950. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		49408 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 950		49152 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 256 (1%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB will be a little bit (approximately 13%) faster with regards to anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 950, and able to handle higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		37056 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 950		32768 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 4288 (13%)

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 data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core clock 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 number of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's 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 many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.