GPU power and performance

[DT-525]

Hi guys am no expert when it comes to speed of GFX cards but im in the process of buying a new rig and i want to no why one GFX card is better than another i cant seam to get my head around these numbers. I no were near have enough money to buy a 580 or a 6970 for my new rig but i will use these as comparisons.

Having a quick look at both the cards specifications you would think that the ATI/AMD card beats the Nvidia card hands down but from benchmarks and reviews iv seen that's not the case, the 580 wipes the floor with the 6970.

The core speed on the Nvidia is 782MHz Fermi GF110 and the speed on the ATI/AMD is 880MHz you would think the faster the core the faster the GFX card.

Same thing again for the memory clock the ATI/AMD is much faster with the Nvidia clocking in at 4008MHz and the ATI/AMD clocking at 5500MHz.

Also the AMD/ATI has over 1000 more cores than the Nvidia. So what gives, why is the Nvidia the king of the hill despite the slower core speeds and less cores.

Thanks for any help in this matter

 

[tinytomlogan]

Core only makes any difference if its the same card.

Otherwise its like saying a 4ghz i3 is as fast as a 4ghz i7 too many people latch on to the MHz and forget that the chips and achitecture are completely different

 

[BigIan88]

bandwidth and memory size play a small factor too