GeForce GTX 1060 vs GeForce GTX 580 3GB

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 580 3GB, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 772 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM runs at a frequency of 1002 MHz on this model. It features 512 SPUs as well as 64 Texture Address Units and 48 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 1060		120 Watts
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		244 Watts
	Difference: 124 Watts (103%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 1060 should perform a small bit faster than the GeForce GTX 580 3GB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1060		196608 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		192384 MB/sec
	Difference: 4224 (2%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 1060 is quite a bit (about 144%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 580 3GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1060		120480 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		49408 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 71072 (144%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 1060 should be a lot (more or less 95%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 580 3GB, and able to handle higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1060		72288 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		37056 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 35232 (95%)

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 (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines 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 output rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.