GeForce GTX 295 vs GeForce GTX 580

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 580, which features a GPU core clock speed of 772 MHz, and 1536 MB of GDDR5 RAM running at 1002 MHz through a 384-bit bus. It also is made up of 512 Stream Processors, 64 TAUs, and 48 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 580		244 Watts
GeForce GTX 295		289 Watts
	Difference: 45 Watts (18%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce GTX 295 should perform just a bit faster than the GeForce GTX 580 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 295		223776 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 580		192384 MB/sec
	Difference: 31392 (16%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 295 will be quite a bit (approximately 87%) better at AF than the GeForce GTX 580. (explain)

GeForce GTX 295		92160 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 580		49408 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 42752 (87%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 580 is the winner, but only just. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580		37056 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 295		32256 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 4800 (15%)

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.

One or more cards in this comparison are multi-core. This means that their bandwidth, texel and pixel rates are theoretically doubled - this does not mean the card will actually perform twice as fast, but only that it should in theory be able to. Actual game benchmarks will give a more accurate idea of what it's capable of.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total 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 processed in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.