GeForce 8800 Ultra vs GeForce GTX 580 3GB

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 580 3GB, which has core clock speeds of 772 MHz on the GPU, and 1002 MHz on the 3072 MB of GDDR5 RAM. It features 512 SPUs along with 64 TAUs and 48 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8800 Ultra		171 Watts
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		244 Watts
	Difference: 73 Watts (43%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB should in theory perform much faster than the GeForce 8800 Ultra overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		192384 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 Ultra		103680 MB/sec
	Difference: 88704 (86%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB will be quite a bit (approximately 26%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8800 Ultra. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		49408 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 Ultra		39168 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 10240 (26%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB should be a lot (more or less 152%) more effective at AA than the GeForce 8800 Ultra, and should be able to handle higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		37056 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 Ultra		14688 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 22368 (152%)

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 transported past the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better 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 applied per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card could possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.