GeForce GTS 150 vs GeForce GTX 580 3GB

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 580 3GB, which comes with core clock speeds of 772 MHz on the GPU, and 1002 MHz on the 3072 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 512 SPUs as well as 64 Texture Address Units and 48 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTS 150		141 Watts
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		244 Watts
	Difference: 103 Watts (73%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 580 3GB should be 501% quicker than the GeForce GTS 150 in general, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		192384 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 150		32000 MB/sec
	Difference: 160384 (501%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB should be a small bit (approximately 4%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GTS 150. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		49408 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 150		47360 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 2048 (4%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB is a lot (approximately 213%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTS 150, and also capable of handling higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		37056 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 150		11840 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 25216 (213%)

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 (measured in MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better 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 can be applied per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel 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 max fill rate.