GeForce 8800 Ultra vs GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm, which uses a 55 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 576 MHz. The GDDR3 memory works at a frequency of 999 MHz on this particular model. It features 216 SPUs as well as 72 TAUs and 28 ROPs.

Fallout 3

Settings:	Very High Quality
AA:	8x
AF:	16x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		57 FPS
GeForce 8800 Ultra		45 FPS
	Difference: 12 FPS (27%)

Fallout 3

Settings:	Very High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1680x1050
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Charts Test Rig (Source)

GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		76 FPS
GeForce 8800 Ultra		67 FPS
	Difference: 9 FPS (13%)

Far Cry 2

Settings:	Very High Qualty
AA:	none
AF:	none
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Intel Core i7-920,3 x 2 GB Ram,Windows Vista Ultimate 32 Bit SP1 (Source)

GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		56 FPS
GeForce 8800 Ultra		45 FPS
	Difference: 11 FPS (24%)

Left4Dead

Settings:	Very High Quality
AA:	8x
AF:	16x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		65 FPS
GeForce 8800 Ultra		49 FPS
	Difference: 16 FPS (33%)

Left4Dead

Settings:	Very High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Charts Test Rig (Source)

GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		78 FPS
GeForce 8800 Ultra		59 FPS
	Difference: 19 FPS (32%)

Tom Clancy's Endwar

Settings:	High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		24 FPS
GeForce 8800 Ultra		20 FPS
	Difference: 4 FPS (20%)

Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X

Settings:	High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1680x1050
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Charts Test Rig (Source)

GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		50 FPS
GeForce 8800 Ultra		39 FPS
	Difference: 11 FPS (28%)

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GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm wins

(Based entirely on the benchmarks listed above)

When combining all game benchmark scores on this page together, the GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm wins overall, by 82 FPS. Please note that we do not have the results of every benchmark ever done for these cards, so the results may differ wildly in different games.

GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		406 FPS
GeForce 8800 Ultra		324 FPS
	Difference: 82 FPS (25%)

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Both cards have the same power consumption.

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm should theoretically perform a bit faster than the GeForce 8800 Ultra overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		111888 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 Ultra		103680 MB/sec
	Difference: 8208 (8%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm will be a little bit (approximately 6%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce 8800 Ultra. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		41472 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 Ultra		39168 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 2304 (6%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm is a better choice, but it probably won't make a huge difference. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		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: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. 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 per second. This is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed per second.

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