GeForce GTX 480 vs GeForce GTX 970

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 970, which comes with a GPU core clock speed of 1050 MHz, and 4096 MB of GDDR5 RAM set to run at 1750 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is made up of 1664 SPUs, 104 TAUs, and 64 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Benchmarks

These are real-world performance benchmarks that were submitted by Hardware Compare users. The scores seen here are the average of all benchmarks submitted for each respective test and hardware.

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics Score

GeForce GTX 970		10867 points
GeForce GTX 480		3650 points
	Difference: 7217 (198%)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 970		145 Watts
GeForce GTX 480		250 Watts
	Difference: 105 Watts (72%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 970 should in theory be quite a bit faster than the GeForce GTX 480 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970		224000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 480		177408 MB/sec
	Difference: 46592 (26%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 970 is a lot (more or less 160%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GTX 480. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970		109200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 480		42000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 67200 (160%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 970 is quite a bit (about 100%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 480, and should be capable of handling higher resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970		67200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 480		33600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 33600 (100%)

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 max amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total amount of 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 applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as 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 maximum fill rate.