GeForce GTX 480 vs GeForce GTX 870M

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 870M, which features a GPU core clock speed of 941 MHz, and 3072 MB of GDDR5 RAM running at 1000 MHz through a 192-bit bus. It also is made up of 1344 SPUs, 112 TAUs, and 24 Raster Operation Units.

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 870M		4770 points
GeForce GTX 480		3650 points
	Difference: 1120 (31%)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 870M		110 Watts
GeForce GTX 480		250 Watts
	Difference: 140 Watts (127%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 480 should in theory be a lot better than the GeForce GTX 870M in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		177408 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 870M		96000 MB/sec
	Difference: 81408 (85%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 870M is much (about 151%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GTX 480. (explain)

GeForce GTX 870M		105392 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 480		42000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 63392 (151%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 480 is a lot (about 49%) more effective at FSAA than the GeForce GTX 870M, and also should be capable of handling higher resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		33600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 870M		22584 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 11016 (49%)

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 max amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher 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 texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the graphics 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 maximum number of pixels the video card could possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units 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 fill rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.