GeForce GTX 295 vs GeForce GTX 580

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 580, which has clock speeds of 772 MHz on the GPU, and 1002 MHz on the 1536 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 512 SPUs along with 64 TAUs and 48 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 580		244 Watts
GeForce GTX 295		289 Watts
	Difference: 45 Watts (18%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 295 should in theory be a small bit better than the GeForce GTX 580 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 295		223776 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 580		192384 MB/sec
	Difference: 31392 (16%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 295 will be quite a bit (more or less 87%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GTX 580. (explain)

GeForce GTX 295		92160 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 580		49408 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 42752 (87%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 will be a small bit (about 15%) faster with regards to FSAA than the GeForce GTX 295, and also should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580		37056 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 295		32256 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 4800 (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.

One or more cards in this comparison are multi-core. This means that their bandwidth, texel and pixel rates are theoretically doubled - this does not mean the card will actually perform twice as fast, but only that it should in theory be able to. Actual game benchmarks will give a more accurate idea of what it's capable of.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the max amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better 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 processed per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card 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 core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate also depends on quite a few 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.