AMD Radeon HD 7770M vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 and the AMD Radeon HD 7770M come from opposite ends of the GPU spectrum: one was a flagship desktop card built on an enormous die, the other a mobile part designed for modest power budgets. Both are now end-of-life, but the recorded data in the database still tells a clear story about how differently these two chips were engineered, and how their benchmark results sit relative to the modern field.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The two cards were not run through the same workload, so a direct score comparison needs care. The GTX 580's recorded result is a Geekbench OpenCL score of 15283, while the HD 7770M's recorded result is a Geekbench Metal score of 13536. OpenCL and Metal are different compute APIs, which means the raw numbers are not measured on a common scale. What the data does support is a percentile comparison across the full GPU database, and here the gap is real but narrow.

The GTX 580 sits at the 58th percentile against all GPUs in the database. The HD 7770M sits at the 54th percentile. That is a four-point percentile gap in NVIDIA's favor, which is modest in the context of the entire database, but it does indicate that the older, far larger desktop chip still edges out the newer mobile part in aggregate standing.

The rivals surrounding each card reinforce that picture. The GTX 580's nearest rivals in the database include the GeForce RTX 2060 at an average score of 15290, the Radeon 680M at 15270, the RTX 3050 OEM at 15199, and the Radeon RX 7600 at 15171. All of these sit essentially even with the GTX 580's average of 15283, separated by well under one percent. In other words, the recorded data places this 2010 flagship in the same scoring band as much more recent mainstream and even entry-level current-generation hardware.

The HD 7770M's average of 13536 is bracketed by the Radeon RX 9070 XT at 13543, the GeForce GTX 570 at 13515, the P106-090 at 13470, and the Radeon Pro 555 at 13407. That is a more mixed field: a high-end current AMD card, an older NVIDIA desktop card, a mining-oriented NVIDIA part, and a professional mobile AMD GPU. The HD 7770M scores slightly above the GTX 570 and slightly below the RX 9070 XT in this grouping, which again reflects the caveat that different test APIs may be feeding these averages.

The theoretical performance figures, by contrast, are directly comparable, and they are lopsided. The GTX 580 delivers 1.581 TFLOPS of FP32 compute against 691.2 GFLOPS for the HD 7770M, roughly 2.3 times the raw shader throughput. Pixel fill rate is 24.70 GPixel/s versus 10.80 GPixel/s, and texture fill rate is 49.41 GTexel/s versus 21.60 GTexel/s. In every rasterization metric the desktop card is slightly more than double the mobile one.

Memory subsystem numbers follow the same pattern. The GTX 580's 384-bit GDDR5 bus moves 192.4 GB/s, exactly three times the HD 7770M's 64.00 GB/s on its 128-bit bus. Both run their memory at an effective 4 Gbps, so the entire bandwidth difference comes down to bus width.

Architecture Differences

These two chips could hardly be more different in physical scale. The GTX 580 uses the GF110 die on TSMC's 40 nm process: 3,000 million transistors across a 520 mm² die, yielding a density of 5.8M transistors per square millimeter. The HD 7770M uses the Chelsea die on TSMC's 28 nm process: 1,500 million transistors on a 123 mm² die, for a density of 12.2M per square millimeter. Chelsea is less than a quarter of the GTX 580's die area, carries half the transistors, and more than doubles the density thanks to the node shrink.

Architecturally, they represent successive design philosophies. The GTX 580 belongs to NVIDIA's Fermi 2.0 family, part of the GeForce 500 generation that succeeded the GeForce 400 line and preceded the GeForce 600 series. The HD 7770M is a GCN 1.0 part from AMD's London generation of mobile chips, which succeeded the Vancouver family and was followed by the Solar System generation.

Both chips field 512 shading units, an interesting numerical coincidence, but the surrounding resources diverge sharply. The GTX 580 pairs those units with 64 texture mapping units and 48 render output units; the HD 7770M has 32 TMUs and 16 ROPs. Half the TMUs and a third of the ROPs explain most of the fill-rate deficit on paper.

Memory configurations differ in both scale and capacity. The GTX 580 carries 1536 MB of GDDR5 across a 384-bit bus; the HD 7770M carries 1024 MB of GDDR5 across 128 bits. Both memory pools run at the same effective data rate.

Feature support is where the newer chip pulls ahead despite its smaller size. The HD 7770M reports DirectX 12 with feature level 11_1, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170, while the GTX 580 reports DirectX 12 with feature level 11_0, OpenGL 4.6, and no Vulkan support at all. The one-feature-level gap in DirectX and the absence of Vulkan on the Fermi card mark the age difference between the two designs.

The GTX 580 was released on November 8, 2010, with a launch MSRP of 499 USD. The HD 7770M followed on April 23, 2012, roughly a year and a half later, and no launch MSRP is recorded for it. Both are now end-of-life.

Platform requirements differ enormously. The GTX 580 is a dual-slot desktop card measuring 267 mm long and 111 mm tall, drawing 244 W of board power through one 6-pin and one 8-pin connector, with a suggested 550 W system power supply. The HD 7770M is a mobile part with a 32 W TDP, no auxiliary power connectors, and portable-device-dependent display outputs, since it ships inside laptops. Both connect over PCIe 2.0 x16. The GTX 580 offers two DVI outputs plus a mini-HDMI 1.3a output.

FAQ

Q: Does the GTX 580 or the HD 7770M have more shading units?

A: Neither. Both have exactly 512 shading units. The GTX 580 pulls far ahead of the HD 7770M in throughput anyway, with 1.581 TFLOPS of FP32 compute versus 691.2 GFLOPS, a gap driven by clocks and the surrounding design rather than the raw unit count.

Q: How do the two compare in the broader database?

A: The GTX 580 ranks at the 58th percentile against all GPUs; the HD 7770M ranks at the 54th. The desktop card holds a modest percentile edge despite being the older design.

Q: Which card supports newer graphics APIs?

A: The HD 7770M. It supports DirectX 12 at feature level 11_1, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170. The GTX 580 supports DirectX 12 at feature level 11_0, OpenGL 4.6, and has no Vulkan support recorded.

Q: How much more power does the GTX 580 need?

A: The GTX 580 has a 244 W TDP and requires one 6-pin and one 8-pin power connector, with a 550 W power supply suggested. The HD 7770M runs at 32 W as a mobile part with no auxiliary connectors.

Q: How large are the two dies?

A: The GTX 580's GF110 die measures 520 mm² with 3,000 million transistors on a 40 nm process. The HD 7770M's Chelsea die measures 123 mm² with 1,500 million transistors on a 28 nm process.

Q: How much memory bandwidth does each card have?

A: The GTX 580 delivers 192.4 GB/s across its 384-bit bus; the HD 7770M delivers 64.00 GB/s across 128 bits. Both use GDDR5 at an effective 4 Gbps.

Specification Differences

• Manufacturer: NVIDIA versus AMD
• Chip: GF110 versus Chelsea
• Architecture: Fermi 2.0 versus GCN 1.0
• Generation: GeForce 500 versus London (HD 7700M)
• Process node: 40 nm versus 28 nm
• Transistors: 3,000 million versus 1,500 million
• Die size: 520 mm² versus 123 mm²
• Transistor density: 5.8M versus 12.2M per mm²
• Memory size: 1536 MB versus 1024 MB
• Bus width: 384 bit versus 128 bit
• Bandwidth: 192.4 GB/s versus 64.00 GB/s
• TMUs: 64 versus 32
• ROPs: 48 versus 16
• Pixel rate: 24.70 GPixel/s versus 10.80 GPixel/s
• Texture rate: 49.41 GTexel/s versus 21.60 GTexel/s
• FP32 compute: 1.581 TFLOPS versus 691.2 GFLOPS
• TDP: 244 W versus 32 W
• Slot width: Dual-slot versus not applicable for a mobile part
• Power connectors: 1x 6-pin plus 1x 8-pin versus none
• Suggested PSU: 550 W versus none recorded
• Display outputs: 2x DVI plus mini-HDMI 1.3a versus portable-device-dependent
• DirectX: 12 (11_0) versus 12 (11_1)
• Vulkan: not supported versus 1.2.170
• Dimensions: 267 mm by 111 mm versus none recorded
• Release date: November 8, 2010 versus April 23, 2012
• Predecessor: GeForce 400 versus Vancouver
• Successor: GeForce 600 versus Solar System

Where Each One Wins

The GTX 580 wins on raw performance, decisively. Its pixel fill rate is more than double the HD 7770M's, its texture fill rate is more than double, its FP32 compute is more than double, and its memory bandwidth is triple. Its database standing is also higher, at the 58th percentile versus the 54th, and its average score places it alongside the RTX 2060, the Radeon 680M, the RTX 3050 OEM, and the RX 7600. For any workload that scales with fill rate, bandwidth, or compute throughput, and for any desktop build that can supply a 550 W-class system with the required connectors, the recorded data favors the GTX 580.

The HD 7770M wins on efficiency and modern software support. At 32 W it delivers a database standing of the 54th percentile, a remarkable result for a chip that fits within a laptop power envelope, and its 28 nm Chelsea die packs twice the transistor density of the GF110. It also carries the newer API set, with DirectX feature level 11_1 and Vulkan 1.2.170 support that the GTX 580 lacks entirely. For a mobile platform, or for any scenario where power draw and driver-level compatibility matter more than throughput, the HD 7770M is the more practical chip.

The headline is that both are retired hardware, but the data shows two very different legacies: a power-hungry desktop flagship that still matches modern mainstream cards in compute-oriented benchmarks, and a compact mobile die that traded raw throughput for efficiency and a newer feature set.