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GeForce 8800 GT 512MB vs Radeon HD 4870 512MB

Intro

The GeForce 8800 GT 512MB features clock speeds of 600 MHz on the GPU, and 900 MHz on the 512 MB of GDDR3 memory. It features 112 SPUs as well as 56 Texture Address Units and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Compare that to the Radeon HD 4870 512MB, which comes with a clock frequency of 750 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 900 MHz. It also uses a 256-bit bus, and makes use of a 55 nm design. It is comprised of 800(160x5) SPUs, 40 Texture Address Units, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 105 Watts
Radeon HD 4870 512MB 150 Watts
Difference: 45 Watts (43%)

Memory Bandwidth

The Radeon HD 4870 512MB should in theory be much faster than the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 4870 512MB 115200 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 57600 MB/sec
Difference: 57600 (100%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GT 512MB will be a small bit (about 12%) better at AF than the Radeon HD 4870 512MB. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 33600 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4870 512MB 30000 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 3600 (12%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 4870 512MB should be much (about 25%) more effective at FSAA than the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB, and also able to handle higher screen resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

Radeon HD 4870 512MB 12000 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 9600 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 2400 (25%)

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

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GeForce 8800 GT 512MB

Amazon.com

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Radeon HD 4870 512MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

Specifications

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Model GeForce 8800 GT 512MB Radeon HD 4870 512MB
Manufacturer nVidia AMD
Year Oct 2007 Jun 25, 2008
Code Name G92 RV770 XT
Memory 512 MB 512 MB
Core Speed 600 MHz 750 MHz
Memory Speed 1800 MHz 3600 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 105 watts 150 watts
Bandwidth 57600 MB/sec 115200 MB/sec
Texel Rate 33600 Mtexels/sec 30000 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 9600 Mpixels/sec 12000 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 112 800(160x5)
Texture Mapping Units 56 40
Render Output Units 16 16
Bus Type GDDR3 GDDR5
Bus Width 256-bit 256-bit
Fab Process 65 nm 55 nm
Transistors 754 million 956 million
Bus PCIe x16 2.0 PCIe 2.0 x16
DirectX Version DirectX 10 DirectX 10.1
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 3.0

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's 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 processed in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant 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.

Display Prices

Hide Prices

GeForce 8800 GT 512MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 4870 512MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

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