GeForce GTX 580 3GB vs Radeon RX 460 2GB

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon RX 460 2GB, which has a core clock frequency of 1090 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1750 MHz. It also makes use of a 128-bit bus, and uses a 14 nm design. It features 896 SPUs, 56 Texture Address Units, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon RX 460 2GB		75 Watts
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		244 Watts
	Difference: 169 Watts (225%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 580 3GB will be 72% quicker than the Radeon RX 460 2GB in general, because of its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		192384 MB/sec
Radeon RX 460 2GB		112000 MB/sec
	Difference: 80384 (72%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon RX 460 2GB will be a lot (about 24%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 580 3GB. (explain)

Radeon RX 460 2GB		61040 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		49408 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 11632 (24%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 580 3GB is a better choice, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		37056 Mpixels/sec
Radeon RX 460 2GB		17440 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 19616 (112%)

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: Bandwidth is the max amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, 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 are processed in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at handling 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 record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount 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 drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.