GeForce GTX 280 vs GeForce GTX 580

Intro

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

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 280		236 Watts
GeForce GTX 580		244 Watts
	Difference: 8 Watts (3%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 580 should in theory perform much faster than the GeForce GTX 280 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580		192384 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 280		141696 MB/sec
	Difference: 50688 (36%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 should be just a bit (approximately 3%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 280. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580		49408 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 280		48160 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 1248 (3%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 should be much (more or less 92%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 280, and also should be able to handle higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580		37056 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 280		19264 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 17792 (92%)

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 (measured in MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. 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 texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the video card can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units 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 fill rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.