GeForce 8800 GT 512MB vs GeForce GTX 970

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 970, which has a clock frequency of 1050 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1750 MHz. It also makes use of a 256-bit bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It is made up of 1664 SPUs, 104 TAUs, and 64 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		105 Watts
GeForce GTX 970		145 Watts
	Difference: 40 Watts (38%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 970 should be quite a bit faster than the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970		224000 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 166400 (289%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 970 will be a lot (approximately 225%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970		109200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 75600 (225%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 970 should be much (more or less 600%) better at FSAA than the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB, and also will be able to handle higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970		67200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		9600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 57600 (600%)

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 information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.