GeForce 8800 GT 512MB vs Radeon HD 7790

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 7790, which comes with a clock frequency of 1000 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1500 MHz. It also features a 128-bit memory bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It features 896 SPUs, 56 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 7790		85 Watts
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		105 Watts
	Difference: 20 Watts (24%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the Radeon HD 7790 should in theory be quite a bit superior to the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 7790		96000 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 38400 (67%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 7790 should be quite a bit (approximately 67%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB. (explain)

Radeon HD 7790		56000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 22400 (67%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the Radeon HD 7790 is a better choice, by a large margin. (explain)

Radeon HD 7790		16000 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		9600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 6400 (67%)

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 (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.