GeForce GTS 450 vs GeForce GTX 580 3GB

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 580 3GB, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 772 MHz. The GDDR5 memory runs at a frequency of 1002 MHz on this particular 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 GTS 450		106 Watts
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		244 Watts
	Difference: 138 Watts (130%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB, in theory, should be quite a bit faster than the GeForce GTS 450 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		192384 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 450		57728 MB/sec
	Difference: 134656 (233%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB is a lot (approximately 97%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTS 450. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		49408 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 450		25056 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 24352 (97%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB is a lot (approximately 196%) more effective at AA than the GeForce GTS 450, and should be able to handle higher screen resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		37056 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 450		12528 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 24528 (196%)

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 information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it must 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 anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.