GeForce 8500 GT vs GeForce GTX 580 3GB

Intro

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

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

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 580 3GB should in theory be quite a bit better than the GeForce 8500 GT overall. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB should be much (about 1272%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8500 GT. (explain)

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

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB will be a lot (approximately 1959%) faster with regards to AA than the GeForce 8500 GT, and also should be able to handle higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (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: Memory bandwidth is the largest amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour 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 output rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.