NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 vs NVIDIA T400 4 GB Comparison

The NVIDIA T400 4 GB and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 represent two distinct eras of GPU design, separated by over a decade of architectural evolution. The data reveals a clear performance hierarchy, but the story is more nuanced than a simple win/loss tally. Benchmark results indicate that the T400, a modern Turing-based workstation card, decisively outperforms the aging Fermi flagship in the available compute tests, despite the GTX 580’s larger memory bus and higher raw shading power.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct comparison available is the Geekbench OpenCL test, and the results are unambiguous. The NVIDIA T400 4 GB scores 17,320 points, which is a 13.3% improvement over the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580’s 15,283 points. This is a substantial margin in a compute-oriented workload, suggesting that the architectural advancements in the T400 more than compensate for its lower core count and narrower memory interface. The T400’s win here is its sole victory in the head-to-head, but it is a decisive one.

Contextualizing this score against their respective rivals further clarifies the landscape. The T400’s average benchmark score of 16,792 places it in the 60th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 7600S, scores 16,696, which is a 0.6% deficit, meaning the T400 is essentially neck-and-neck with a modern laptop GPU. Meanwhile, the GTX 580’s average score of 15,283 puts it in the 58th percentile. Its closest competitor, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060, scores 15,290 with a 0% deltaPct, indicating that the GTX 580’s raw compute performance is roughly on par with that much newer mainstream card.

This data suggests a paradox. The GTX 580, with its 512 shading units and 1,581 GFLOPS of FP32 throughput, should theoretically crunch numbers faster than the T400’s 384 units and 1,094.4 GFLOPS. Yet, the T400 pulls ahead by 13.3%. The implication is that the OpenCL workload is not purely a measure of raw shader throughput; it also rewards the T400’s newer instruction set, driver optimizations, and more efficient memory subsystem. The GTX 580’s raw specs are impressive for its era, but the benchmark shows that architectural efficiency wins over brute force.

Architecture Differences

The fundamental divergence lies in the GPU architectures. The T400 is built on the Turing architecture using a 12 nm process at TSMC, while the GTX 580 uses the Fermi 2.0 architecture on a 40 nm process, also from TSMC. This node difference is massive: the T400 packs 4,700 million transistors into a 200 mm² die, achieving a transistor density of 23.5 million per mm². The GTX 580, by contrast, houses 3,000 million transistors on a sprawling 520 mm² die, with a density of just 5.8 million per mm². The T400 is a marvel of miniaturization, enabling far higher efficiency.

The memory configurations tell a story of trade-offs. The T400 uses 4 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 64-bit bus, yielding 80.00 GB/s of bandwidth. The GTX 580 uses 1536 MB of GDDR5 on a 384-bit bus, delivering 192.4 GB/s. The GTX 580 has a clear bandwidth advantage—more than double the T400’s—which historically would have been critical for high-resolution gaming. However, the T400’s GDDR6 memory runs at 10 Gbps effective, compared to the GTX 580’s 4 Gbps, and the modern memory controller is likely more efficient at extracting performance from a narrower bus.

Beyond raw memory, the compute feature sets differ. The T400 supports DirectX 12 (12_1), while the GTX 580 only reaches DirectX 12 (11_0). Both support OpenGL 4.6, but the T400 adds Vulkan 1.4 support, whereas the GTX 580 has no listed Vulkan support. Neither card has ray tracing or tensor cores, but the T400’s support for FP16 compute at 2.189 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio) is a significant addition; the GTX 580 has no FP16 capability listed. This makes the T400 inherently more flexible for modern compute workloads that leverage mixed-precision arithmetic.

The Verdict

From the data, the NVIDIA T400 4 GB is the superior performer in the tested compute benchmark, winning the Geekbench OpenCL test by 13.3%. For any user prioritizing raw compute throughput in OpenCL applications, the T400 is the clear choice. Its higher average benchmark score (16,792 vs 15,283) and higher percentile ranking (60th vs 58th) reinforce this conclusion. The T400 also offers modern API support, including Vulkan, and vastly better power efficiency, with a 30 W TDP compared to the GTX 580’s 244 W.

However, the GTX 580 is not without its redeeming qualities, though they are not visible in the compute benchmarks. Its memory bandwidth of 192.4 GB/s is significantly higher, which could translate to advantages in bandwidth-sensitive tasks, though this is not proven by the available data. The GTX 580 also has a much higher pixel rate (24.70 GPixel/s) and texture rate (49.41 GTexel/s) than the T400 (22.80 GPixel/s and 34.20 GTexel/s, respectively). These metrics suggest the GTX 580 might be better suited for fill-rate-bound workloads, but the T400’s overall compute win makes it the more future-proof option.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher Geekbench OpenCL score?

A: The NVIDIA T400 4 GB scores 17,320, which is 13.3% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580’s 15,283.

Q: How does the T400’s performance compare to its nearest rival?

A: The T400’s average benchmark score is 16,792, which is 0.6% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 7600S’s score of 16,696.

Q: Does the GTX 580 have any advantages in raw specifications?

A: Yes, the GTX 580 has a higher memory bandwidth (192.4 GB/s vs 80.00 GB/s), more shading units (512 vs 384), and higher pixel/texture rates.

Q: What are the power consumption requirements for each card?

A: The T400 has a TDP of 30 W and a suggested PSU of 200 W, while the GTX 580 has a TDP of 244 W and a suggested PSU of 550 W.

Q: Is there a difference in API support?

A: Yes, the T400 supports DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.4, while the GTX 580 only supports DirectX 12 (11_0) and has no Vulkan support listed.

Q: What is the memory size difference?

A: The T400 has 4 GB of GDDR6 memory, while the GTX 580 has 1536 MB of GDDR5 memory.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA T400 4 GB wins in compute-centric scenarios, as demonstrated by its 13.3% lead in Geekbench OpenCL. Its modern Turing architecture, with support for FP16 and Vulkan, makes it a better fit for modern compute workloads, machine learning inference, and API-accelerated applications. Its 4 GB frame buffer is also double the GTX 580’s capacity, which is beneficial for larger datasets in compute tasks, even if the bus is narrower. The T400’s low 30 W TDP also makes it ideal for compact, low-power systems where the GTX 580’s 244 W draw would be prohibitive.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 wins in raw fill-rate and bandwidth-driven scenarios, based on its specification sheet. Its 192.4 GB/s bandwidth and higher pixel/texture rates suggest it would be more capable in legacy rasterization workloads that are not captured by the Geekbench OpenCL test. For a user running very old games or specific OpenGL applications that are fill-rate bound, the GTX 580’s larger ROP count (48 vs 16) and TMU count (64 vs 24) could provide an edge. However, this is speculative, as the benchmark data does not include a direct comparison in these areas.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every major specification category. The T400 uses the TU117 chip on a 12 nm process, while the GTX 580 uses the GF110 chip on a 40 nm process. The T400 has a base clock of 420 MHz and a boost clock of 1425 MHz; the GTX 580 has no base or boost clocks listed. Memory differs significantly: the T400 has 4 GB GDDR6 on a 64-bit bus with 80.00 GB/s bandwidth, while the GTX 580 has 1536 MB GDDR5 on a 384-bit bus with 192.4 GB/s bandwidth.

Core configurations also diverge: the T400 has 384 shading units, 24 TMUs, and 16 ROPs, whereas the GTX 580 has 512 shading units, 64 TMUs, and 48 ROPs. The T400’s FP32 performance is 1,094.4 GFLOPS, while the GTX 580’s is 1,581 TFLOPS. Power and physical requirements are starkly different: the T400 is a single-slot card with a 30 W TDP and no power connectors, while the GTX 580 is a dual-slot card with a 244 W TDP and requires both a 6-pin and an 8-pin power connector. The T400 uses a PCIe 3.0 x16 interface, while the GTX 580 uses PCIe 2.0 x16. Display outputs are also different, with the T400 offering 3x mini-DisplayPort 1.4a and the GTX 580 offering 2x DVI and 1x mini-HDMI 1.3a.