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GeForce GTX 580 3GB vs Radeon HD 4850 2GB

Intro

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB comes with core speeds of 772 MHz on the GPU, and 1002 MHz on the 3072 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 512 SPUs as well as 64 Texture Address Units and 48 Rasterization Operator Units.

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 4850 2GB, which has a clock frequency of 625 MHz and a GDDR4 memory speed of 993 MHz. It also features a 256-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 55 nm design. It is comprised of 800(160x5) SPUs, 40 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 4850 2GB 110 Watts
GeForce GTX 580 3GB 244 Watts
Difference: 134 Watts (122%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 580 3GB should theoretically be a lot superior to the Radeon HD 4850 2GB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB 192384 MB/sec
Radeon HD 4850 2GB 63552 MB/sec
Difference: 128832 (203%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB should be much (about 98%) better at AF than the Radeon HD 4850 2GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB 49408 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4850 2GB 25000 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 24408 (98%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB will be a lot (approximately 271%) better at full screen anti-aliasing than the Radeon HD 4850 2GB, and should be able to handle higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB 37056 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4850 2GB 10000 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 27056 (271%)

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

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GeForce GTX 580 3GB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 4850 2GB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

Specifications

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Model GeForce GTX 580 3GB Radeon HD 4850 2GB
Manufacturer nVidia AMD
Year November 2010 Jun 25, 2008
Code Name GF110 RV770 PRO
Memory 3072 MB 2048 MB
Core Speed 772 MHz 625 MHz
Memory Speed 4008 MHz 1986 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 244 watts 110 watts
Bandwidth 192384 MB/sec 63552 MB/sec
Texel Rate 49408 Mtexels/sec 25000 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 37056 Mpixels/sec 10000 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 512 800(160x5)
Texture Mapping Units 64 40
Render Output Units 48 16
Bus Type GDDR5 GDDR4
Bus Width 384-bit 256-bit
Fab Process 40 nm 55 nm
Transistors 3000 million 956 million
Bus PCIe x16 PCIe 2.0 x16
DirectX Version DirectX 11 DirectX 10.1
OpenGL Version OpenGL 4.1 OpenGL 3.0

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the max amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the 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 maximum number of pixels the video card could possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units 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 rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.

Display Prices

Hide Prices

GeForce GTX 580 3GB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 4850 2GB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

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