GeForce 8800 Ultra vs GeForce GTX 580

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 580, which features clock speeds of 772 MHz on the GPU, and 1002 MHz on the 1536 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 512 SPUs as well as 64 TAUs and 48 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8800 Ultra		171 Watts
GeForce GTX 580		244 Watts
	Difference: 73 Watts (43%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 580, in theory, should be quite a bit faster than the GeForce 8800 Ultra in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580		192384 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 Ultra		103680 MB/sec
	Difference: 88704 (86%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 will be much (more or less 26%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8800 Ultra. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580		49408 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 Ultra		39168 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 10240 (26%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 should be a lot (about 152%) better at AA than the GeForce 8800 Ultra, and also should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580		37056 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 Ultra		14688 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 22368 (152%)

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 transported across the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the video card could possibly write 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 core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.