GeForce 8500 GT vs GeForce GTX 580 3GB

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 580 3GB, which comes with a clock frequency of 772 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1002 MHz. It also makes use of a 384-bit bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It is comprised of 512 SPUs, 64 TAUs, and 48 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8500 GT		45 Watts
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		244 Watts
	Difference: 199 Watts (442%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 580 3GB is 1403% faster than the GeForce 8500 GT in general, due to its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		192384 MB/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 179584 (1403%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB is a lot (more or less 1272%) better at AF than the GeForce 8500 GT. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		49408 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		3600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 45808 (1272%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 580 3GB is superior to the GeForce 8500 GT, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		37056 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		1800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 35256 (1959%)

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: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the video card could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number 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 output rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.