GeForce 8800 GS vs GeForce 8800 GT 512MB

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB, which 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 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Both cards have the same power consumption.

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB should be 50% faster than the GeForce 8800 GS overall, due to its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GS		38400 MB/sec
	Difference: 19200 (50%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GT 512MB should be a lot (more or less 27%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8800 GS. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GS		26400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 7200 (27%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GT 512MB should be a lot (more or less 45%) better at FSAA than the GeForce 8800 GS, and will be capable of handling higher screen resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		9600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GS		6600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3000 (45%)

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 max amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 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, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the video 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 most pixels the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.