GeForce GTX 550 Ti vs GeForce GTX 580 3GB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 580 3GB, which features core clock speeds of 772 MHz on the GPU, and 1002 MHz on the 3072 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 512 SPUs along with 64 TAUs and 48 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 550 Ti		116 Watts
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		244 Watts
	Difference: 128 Watts (110%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 580 3GB should in theory be quite a bit superior to the GeForce GTX 550 Ti overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		192384 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 550 Ti		98496 MB/sec
	Difference: 93888 (95%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB is much (approximately 72%) better at AF than the GeForce GTX 550 Ti. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		49408 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 550 Ti		28800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 20608 (72%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 580 3GB is superior to the GeForce GTX 550 Ti, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		37056 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 550 Ti		21600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 15456 (72%)

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 max amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card 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 one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most 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 amount of colour ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.