GeForce 8800 GT 512MB vs GeForce GTX 580

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 580, which uses a 40 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 772 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM runs at a frequency of 1002 MHz on this card. It features 512 SPUs as well as 64 Texture Address Units and 48 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		105 Watts
GeForce GTX 580		244 Watts
	Difference: 139 Watts (132%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 580, in theory, should be a lot faster than the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580		192384 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 134784 (234%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 is a lot (approximately 47%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580		49408 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 15808 (47%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 should be a lot (about 286%) faster with regards to anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB, and capable of handling higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580		37056 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		9600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 27456 (286%)

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 maximum amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred over 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 RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, 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 processed per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core 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 applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics 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 colour ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.