GeForce GTX 580 3GB vs Radeon HD 7970

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 7970, which has a core clock speed of 925 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1375 MHz. It also uses a 384-bit bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It features 2048 SPUs, 128 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		244 Watts
Radeon HD 7970		250 Watts
	Difference: 6 Watts (2%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Radeon HD 7970 should be 37% faster than the GeForce GTX 580 3GB in general, because of its higher bandwidth. (explain)

Radeon HD 7970		264000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		192384 MB/sec
	Difference: 71616 (37%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 7970 is much (approximately 140%) better at AF than the GeForce GTX 580 3GB. (explain)

Radeon HD 7970		118400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		49408 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 68992 (140%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB should be much (about 25%) better at FSAA than the Radeon HD 7970, and also should be able to handle higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		37056 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 7970		29600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 7456 (25%)

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 data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the card will be at handling 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 that the graphics chip could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes 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, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.