GeForce 8400 GS 512MB vs GeForce GTX 580 3GB

Intro

Compare all 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 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 8400 GS 512MB		40 Watts
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		244 Watts
	Difference: 204 Watts (510%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB, in theory, should be quite a bit faster than the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		192384 MB/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		6400 MB/sec
	Difference: 185984 (2906%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB is much (about 850%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		49408 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		5200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 44208 (850%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB should be a lot (about 1325%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB, and also should be able to handle higher screen resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		37056 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		2600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 34456 (1325%)

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 (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred across 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 type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the 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 most pixels that the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant 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 get to the max fill rate.