GeForce 8800 GTX vs GeForce GTX 580

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 580, which comes with a clock frequency of 772 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1002 MHz. It also features a 384-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It is made up of 512 SPUs, 64 TAUs, and 48 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8800 GTX		155 Watts
GeForce GTX 580		244 Watts
	Difference: 89 Watts (57%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 580 will be 123% quicker than the GeForce 8800 GTX overall, because of its greater bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580		192384 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GTX		86400 MB/sec
	Difference: 105984 (123%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 should be quite a bit (approximately 34%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 8800 GTX. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580		49408 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GTX		36800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 12608 (34%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 580 is the winner, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580		37056 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GTX		13800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 23256 (169%)

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: Memory bandwidth is the largest amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.