GeForce 8800 GT 256MB vs Radeon HD 7970

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 7970, which features a clock frequency of 925 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1375 MHz. It also uses a 384-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It is comprised of 2048 SPUs, 128 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		105 Watts
Radeon HD 7970		250 Watts
	Difference: 145 Watts (138%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon HD 7970 will be 489% quicker than the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB in general, because of its higher data rate. (explain)

Radeon HD 7970		264000 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		44800 MB/sec
	Difference: 219200 (489%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 7970 is quite a bit (more or less 252%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB. (explain)

Radeon HD 7970		118400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 84800 (252%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 7970 will be quite a bit (more or less 208%) more effective at FSAA than the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB, and able to handle higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

Radeon HD 7970		29600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		9600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 20000 (208%)

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: Bandwidth is the max amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.