how is the GTX 580 the fastest GPU?

[colossus7777]

I just want to know due to stats
a GTX 580 has lower clock speed, memory clock, processing cores than say a 6950 or a 560 TI, also it offers less memory

So how is it faster? What's the point of listing its specs if they're meaningless?

 

[Martini1991]

AMD and Nvidia count shaders differently to be basic.
The 560TI has has 384 shaders, GTX580 has 512.

The spec's aren't meaningless if you can understand them.

But the 7970 is the fastest single GPU right now.

 

[Maxi011]

The specs are only really valid for each individual chip. IE if one gtx 580 has faster clocks than another 580 it should be faster.
But you cant really compare the clocks of even a 580 and a 560 because they are two different chips.
At least this is the way i have always looked at it, not really a very scientific answer i admit.

 

[colossus7777]

I just want to understand it as just by looking at GFX cards its impossible to tell what is better. But CPU benchmark has some unreliable results, such as it thinks 580 is better than 590 and 7950/70.

 

[Rusty0611]

Look at performance reviews of the cards you're interested in then

 

[Freddie1980]

Mugs just look at the specs when buying a video card, read the reviews and make your own choice as tp what the fastest and best value is.

 

[MartynB85]

Mugs just look at the specs when buying a video card.

I disagree, and would have thought a lot of people of here would too.

 

[ANN1H1LAT0R]

It WAS the fastest single GPU but no longer since the new Radeons came out but its not all about shader count and processing units and clock speeds. Its about efficiency and drivers and support. The GTX580 is a fast card but specs dont account for what makes a card fast all the time.

I agree though with the comment about people buying a card based on specs. Thats true they will and logically the bigger the numbers the better it should be but thats more marketing than reality unfortunately.

And to OP. Does the GTX 580 have lower numbers then a 560Ti???? I don't think so somehow lol

 

[arc@css]

Don't compare AMD v Nvidia by numbers alone, the architectures are different.

You can generally assume that, for example, any 580 will be superior to any other Nvidia card (within the same series) that has a lower number in its title, e.g. a 570. In case you're unsure, try something like this as a means for comparison :

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/517?vs=547

 

[chaparral]

And to OP. Does the GTX 580 have lower numbers then a 560Ti???? I don't think so somehow lol

EVGA GeForce GTX 560TI Superclocked
- Core Clock: 900MHz;
- Memory Clock: 4212MHz;
- Shader Clock: 1800MHz;

EVGA GeForce GTX 580 DS SuperClocked
- Core Clock: 797MHz
- Memory Clock: 4050MHz
- Shader Clock: 1594MHz

 

[Mojo]

To really get an idea of how good the card is, you need to look at benchmarks. AMD on paper appears to be faster (high core clock, more shaders, higher mem clock) but the architectures are so different you can't look at it in such black and white terms.

For the record, from perusing Guru3d and Overclock3d currently it appears that for the high end the cards go as follows:

7970>7950>GTX580>GTX570=6970>6950=560ti 2gb>560ti 1gb

 

[Randomface74]

order them by price and spend twice what you planned

job done

 

[panyan]

Mugs just look at the specs

+1 look at the game benchmarks of the games and res you use

I disagree, and would have thought a lot of people of here would too.

-1 specs are usually used for marketing and are not as reliable as real-world benchmarks for sorting out the differences between products

 

[rowedogg]

ive known people in the past to buy a gfx card just because it has say 1gb vram over one with 512mb vram. without looking into anything else, then boast they have a 1gb card