GeForce GTX 295 vs GeForce GTX 580

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 580, which has a clock frequency of 772 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1002 MHz. It also uses a 384-bit bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It features 512 SPUs, 64 TAUs, and 48 Raster Operation Units.

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

The GeForce GTX 295 should theoretically be a bit faster than the GeForce GTX 580 in general. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 295 is a lot (about 87%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 580. (explain)

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

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 is a small bit (about 15%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 295, and will be able to handle higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (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 over the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.