GeForce 8800 GT 256MB vs Geforce GTX 680

Intro

Compare those specs to the Geforce GTX 680, which features clock speeds of 1006 MHz on the GPU, and 1502 MHz on the 2048 MB of GDDR5 RAM. It features 1536 SPUs as well as 128 TAUs and 32 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		105 Watts
Geforce GTX 680		195 Watts
	Difference: 90 Watts (86%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the Geforce GTX 680 should perform much faster than the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB overall. (explain)

Geforce GTX 680		192256 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		44800 MB/sec
	Difference: 147456 (329%)

Texel Rate

The Geforce GTX 680 will be a lot (about 283%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB. (explain)

Geforce GTX 680		128768 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 95168 (283%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the Geforce GTX 680 is a better choice, and very much so. (explain)

Geforce GTX 680		32192 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		9600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 22592 (235%)

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 information (measured in MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.