GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB vs GeForce GTX 580

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 580, which comes with a GPU core clock speed of 772 MHz, and 1536 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 1002 MHz through a 384-bit bus. It also is made up of 512 Stream Processors, 64 Texture Address Units, and 48 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		143 Watts
GeForce GTX 580		244 Watts
	Difference: 101 Watts (71%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 580 should theoretically be much better than the GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580		192384 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		63360 MB/sec
	Difference: 129024 (204%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 should be a lot (more or less 101%) better at AF than the GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580		49408 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		24624 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 24784 (101%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 is a lot (about 261%) better at FSAA than the GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB, and should be able to handle higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580		37056 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		10260 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 26796 (261%)

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 (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video 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 amount of pixels that the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.