GeForce GTX 580 vs Geforce GTX 680

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Geforce GTX 680, which uses a 28 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 1006 MHz. The GDDR5 memory runs at a speed of 1502 MHz on this particular card. It features 1536 SPUs as well as 128 TAUs and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Benchmarks

These are real-world performance benchmarks that were submitted by Hardware Compare users. The scores seen here are the average of all benchmarks submitted for each respective test and hardware.

Grand Theft Auto V | 1920x1080 | Very High

Geforce GTX 680		38 FPS
GeForce GTX 580		25 FPS
	Difference: 13 (52%)

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics Score

Geforce GTX 680		7650 points
GeForce GTX 580		4956 points
	Difference: 2694 (54%)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Geforce GTX 680		195 Watts
GeForce GTX 580		244 Watts
	Difference: 49 Watts (25%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 580 should be a small bit faster than the Geforce GTX 680 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580		192384 MB/sec
Geforce GTX 680		192256 MB/sec
	Difference: 128 (0%)

Texel Rate

The Geforce GTX 680 should be much (approximately 161%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 580. (explain)

Geforce GTX 680		128768 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 580		49408 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 79360 (161%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 580 is the winner, but only just. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580		37056 Mpixels/sec
Geforce GTX 680		32192 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 4864 (15%)

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 max amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total amount of 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 per second.

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