GeForce 8800 GT 256MB vs GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB, which features a clock speed of 513 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 792 MHz. It also features a 320-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 90 nm design. It features 96 SPUs, 48 Texture Address Units, and 20 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		105 Watts
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		143 Watts
	Difference: 38 Watts (36%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB should in theory be a lot better than the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB in general. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		63360 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		44800 MB/sec
	Difference: 18560 (41%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GT 256MB will be a lot (approximately 36%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		24624 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 8976 (36%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB will be a small bit (approximately 7%) better at FSAA than the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB, and also will be able to handle higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		10260 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		9600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 660 (7%)

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 information (counted in MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's 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 texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.