GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB vs GeForce GTX 580 3GB

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 580 3GB, which has a core clock frequency of 772 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1002 MHz. It also makes use of a 384-bit memory bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It is made up of 512 SPUs, 64 TAUs, and 48 Raster Operation Units.

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 3GB		244 Watts
	Difference: 101 Watts (71%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 580 3GB should perform a lot faster than the GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		192384 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		63360 MB/sec
	Difference: 129024 (204%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB should be much (approximately 101%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		49408 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		24624 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 24784 (101%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB is much (more or less 261%) better at FSAA than the GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB, and should be able to handle higher resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		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: Bandwidth is the largest amount of information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the better 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 can be processed per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as 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 - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.