GeForce GTX 580 3GB vs GeForce GTX 970

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 970, which has a core clock frequency of 1050 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1750 MHz. It also uses a 256-bit memory bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It is comprised of 1664 SPUs, 104 TAUs, and 64 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 970		145 Watts
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		244 Watts
	Difference: 99 Watts (68%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 970 is 16% faster than the GeForce GTX 580 3GB in general, because of its greater bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970		224000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		192384 MB/sec
	Difference: 31616 (16%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 970 will be a lot (approximately 121%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 580 3GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970		109200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		49408 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 59792 (121%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 970 should be a lot (approximately 81%) better at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 580 3GB, and also capable of handling higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970		67200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		37056 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 30144 (81%)

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 (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.