GeForce 8800 GT 512MB vs GeForce GTX 960

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 960, which features GPU core speed of 1127 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 1750 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is made up of 1024 Stream Processors, 64 Texture Address Units, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		105 Watts
GeForce GTX 960		120 Watts
	Difference: 15 Watts (14%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 960 should perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960		112000 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 54400 (94%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 960 will be a lot (more or less 115%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960		72128 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 38528 (115%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 960 is superior to the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960		36064 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		9600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 26464 (276%)

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 maximum amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's interface 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 ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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