GeForce GTX 580 3GB vs Geforce GTX 670

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Geforce GTX 670, which comes with GPU core speed of 915 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 1500 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is comprised of 1344 Stream Processors, 112 Texture Address Units, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Geforce GTX 670		170 Watts
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		244 Watts
	Difference: 74 Watts (44%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 580 3GB should be a small bit faster than the Geforce GTX 670 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		192384 MB/sec
Geforce GTX 670		192000 MB/sec
	Difference: 384 (0%)

Texel Rate

The Geforce GTX 670 should be much (about 107%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 580 3GB. (explain)

Geforce GTX 670		102480 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		49408 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 53072 (107%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 580 3GB is superior to the Geforce GTX 670, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		37056 Mpixels/sec
Geforce GTX 670		29280 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 7776 (27%)

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 information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics 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 maximum number of pixels that the graphics card could possibly write to its 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 - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.