GeForce GTS 150 vs GeForce GTX 580

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 580, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 772 MHz. The GDDR5 memory is set to run at a frequency of 1002 MHz on this model. It features 512 SPUs as well as 64 Texture Address Units and 48 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTS 150		141 Watts
GeForce GTX 580		244 Watts
	Difference: 103 Watts (73%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 580 should be 501% faster than the GeForce GTS 150 in general, due to its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580		192384 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 150		32000 MB/sec
	Difference: 160384 (501%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 will be a small bit (about 4%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTS 150. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580		49408 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 150		47360 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 2048 (4%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 should be quite a bit (approximately 213%) faster with regards to anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTS 150, and should be able to handle higher resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580		37056 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 150		11840 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 25216 (213%)

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 largest amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, 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 calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the graphics 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 amount of pixels the video card could possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.