GeForce 8800 GTX vs Geforce GTX 680

Intro

Compare that to the Geforce GTX 680, which comes with a core clock speed of 1006 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1502 MHz. It also makes use of a 256-bit bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It is comprised of 1536 SPUs, 128 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8800 GTX		155 Watts
Geforce GTX 680		195 Watts
	Difference: 40 Watts (26%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the Geforce GTX 680 should in theory be much superior to the GeForce 8800 GTX overall. (explain)

Geforce GTX 680		192256 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GTX		86400 MB/sec
	Difference: 105856 (123%)

Texel Rate

The Geforce GTX 680 is a lot (more or less 250%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 8800 GTX. (explain)

Geforce GTX 680		128768 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GTX		36800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 91968 (250%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the Geforce GTX 680 is the winner, by a large margin. (explain)

Geforce GTX 680		32192 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GTX		13800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 18392 (133%)

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 maximum amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.