GeForce GTX 480 vs GeForce GTX 980

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 980, which has GPU clock speed of 1126 MHz, and 4096 MB of GDDR5 memory set to run at 1750 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also features 2048 SPUs, 128 TAUs, and 64 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

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 980		13552 points
GeForce GTX 480		3650 points
	Difference: 9902 (271%)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 980		165 Watts
GeForce GTX 480		250 Watts
	Difference: 85 Watts (52%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 980 should theoretically be a lot better than the GeForce GTX 480 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980		224000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 480		177408 MB/sec
	Difference: 46592 (26%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 980 is much (approximately 243%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 480. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980		144128 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 480		42000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 102128 (243%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 980 is much (about 114%) faster with regards to AA than the GeForce GTX 480, and also capable of handling higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980		72064 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 480		33600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 38464 (114%)

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 data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the graphics 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 amount of pixels the video card could possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.