GeForce 8800 GT 512MB vs GeForce GTX 960M

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 960M, which features GPU clock speed of 1096 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 RAM running at 1000 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is made up of 640 SPUs, 40 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 960M		65 Watts
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		105 Watts
	Difference: 40 Watts (62%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 960M, in theory, should perform a small bit faster than the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960M		64000 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 6400 (11%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 960M will be much (about 30%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960M		43840 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 10240 (30%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 960M is a better choice, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960M		17536 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		9600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 7936 (83%)

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 data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, 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 texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card can possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.