GeForce GTX 460 SE vs GeForce GTX 580 3GB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 580 3GB, which features a core clock speed of 772 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1002 MHz. It also features a 384-bit memory bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It is comprised of 512 SPUs, 64 Texture Address Units, and 48 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		150 Watts
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		244 Watts
	Difference: 94 Watts (63%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 580 3GB is 77% faster than the GeForce GTX 460 SE in general, because of its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		192384 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 460 SE		108800 MB/sec
	Difference: 83584 (77%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB is a lot (more or less 58%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 460 SE. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		49408 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 SE		31200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 18208 (58%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB will be quite a bit (about 78%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 460 SE, and should be capable of handling higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		37056 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 SE		20800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 16256 (78%)

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 max amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, 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 texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.