GeForce GTX 580 vs GeForce RTX 3060

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce RTX 3060, which features a clock speed of 1320 MHz and a GDDR6 memory frequency of 1875 MHz. It also features a 192-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 8 nm design. It features 3584 SPUs, 112 Texture Address Units, and 48 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce RTX 3060		170 Watts
GeForce GTX 580		244 Watts
	Difference: 74 Watts (44%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce RTX 3060 should theoretically be a lot superior to the GeForce GTX 580 overall. (explain)

GeForce RTX 3060		368640 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 580		192384 MB/sec
	Difference: 176256 (92%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce RTX 3060 is a lot (about 199%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 580. (explain)

GeForce RTX 3060		147840 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 580		49408 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 98432 (199%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce RTX 3060 will be much (more or less 71%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 580, and also should be able to handle higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce RTX 3060		63360 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 580		37056 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 26304 (71%)

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 max amount of information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be moved 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 memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the faster 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 applied per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the core 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 also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.