GeForce GTX 285 1GB vs GeForce GTX 580 3GB

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 580 3GB, which comes with a GPU core clock speed of 772 MHz, and 3072 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 1002 MHz through a 384-bit bus. It also features 512 Stream Processors, 64 TAUs, and 48 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 285 1GB		204 Watts
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		244 Watts
	Difference: 40 Watts (20%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB should theoretically perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce GTX 285 1GB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		192384 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 285 1GB		158976 MB/sec
	Difference: 33408 (21%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 285 1GB is a bit (about 5%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 580 3GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 285 1GB		51840 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		49408 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 2432 (5%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB is a lot (more or less 79%) better at anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 285 1GB, and also should be able to handle higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		37056 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 285 1GB		20736 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 16320 (79%)

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: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the video 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 most pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.