GeForce GTX 460 vs GeForce GTX 580 3GB

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 580 3GB, which has GPU core speed of 772 MHz, and 3072 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 1002 MHz through a 384-bit bus. It also is comprised of 512 SPUs, 64 Texture Address Units, and 48 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 460		150 Watts
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		244 Watts
	Difference: 94 Watts (63%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 580 3GB should perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce GTX 460 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		192384 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 460		86400 MB/sec
	Difference: 105984 (123%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB should be quite a bit (about 31%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 460. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		49408 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460		37800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 11608 (31%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 580 3GB is the winner, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		37056 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 460		16200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 20856 (129%)

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 (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on lots of 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.