GeForce 8500 GT vs GeForce GTX 580

Intro

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

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8500 GT		45 Watts
GeForce GTX 580		244 Watts
	Difference: 199 Watts (442%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 580 should theoretically be a lot better than the GeForce 8500 GT overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580		192384 MB/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 179584 (1403%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 is much (about 1272%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 8500 GT. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580		49408 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		3600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 45808 (1272%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 will be a lot (more or less 1959%) faster with regards to AA than the GeForce 8500 GT, and also should be able to handle higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580		37056 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		1800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 35256 (1959%)

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 (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on many 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.