GeForce 8800 GTX vs GeForce GTX 960

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 960, which comes with a core clock speed of 1127 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1750 MHz. It also makes use of a 128-bit bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It is made up of 1024 SPUs, 64 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 960		120 Watts
GeForce 8800 GTX		155 Watts
	Difference: 35 Watts (29%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 960 should perform a lot faster than the GeForce 8800 GTX in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960		112000 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GTX		86400 MB/sec
	Difference: 25600 (30%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 960 is a lot (about 96%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 8800 GTX. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960		72128 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GTX		36800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 35328 (96%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 960 will be a lot (approximately 161%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8800 GTX, and also should be able to handle higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960		36064 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GTX		13800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 22264 (161%)

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 MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the better 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the 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 chip can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.