GeForce 8800 Ultra vs GeForce GTX 260 Core 216

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216, which comes with GPU core speed of 576 MHz, and 896 MB of GDDR3 memory set to run at 999 MHz through a 448-bit bus. It also is made up of 216 SPUs, 72 Texture Address Units, and 28 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8800 Ultra		171 Watts
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		202 Watts
	Difference: 31 Watts (18%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 is 8% quicker than the GeForce 8800 Ultra overall, because of its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		111888 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 Ultra		103680 MB/sec
	Difference: 8208 (8%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 should be just a bit (more or less 6%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 8800 Ultra. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		41472 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 Ultra		39168 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 2304 (6%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 will be just a bit (approximately 10%) better at FSAA than the GeForce 8800 Ultra, and also able to handle higher screen resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		16128 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 Ultra		14688 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1440 (10%)

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 largest amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.