GeForce GTX 480 vs GeForce GTX 580

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 580, which features GPU clock speed of 772 MHz, and 1536 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 1002 MHz through a 384-bit bus. It also is comprised of 512 SPUs, 64 TAUs, and 48 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Benchmarks

These are real-world performance benchmarks that were submitted by Hardware Compare users. The scores seen here are the average of all benchmarks submitted for each respective test and hardware.

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics Score

GeForce GTX 580		4956 points
GeForce GTX 480		3650 points
	Difference: 1306 (36%)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 580		244 Watts
GeForce GTX 480		250 Watts
	Difference: 6 Watts (2%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 580 is 8% quicker than the GeForce GTX 480 in general, because of its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580		192384 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 480		177408 MB/sec
	Difference: 14976 (8%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 should be a small bit (about 18%) better at AF than the GeForce GTX 480. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580		49408 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 480		42000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 7408 (18%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 is a small bit (more or less 10%) better at FSAA than the GeForce GTX 480, and should be able to handle higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580		37056 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 480		33600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3456 (10%)

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 maximum amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, 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 texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, 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 that the graphics chip can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number 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 fill rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.