GeForce 8800 GTX vs Radeon HD 6970

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon HD 6970, which has GPU core speed of 880 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 RAM running at 1375 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also features 1536 SPUs, 96 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8800 GTX		155 Watts
Radeon HD 6970		250 Watts
	Difference: 95 Watts (61%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Radeon HD 6970 should be 104% faster than the GeForce 8800 GTX in general, due to its greater bandwidth. (explain)

Radeon HD 6970		176000 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GTX		86400 MB/sec
	Difference: 89600 (104%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 6970 should be quite a bit (approximately 130%) better at AF than the GeForce 8800 GTX. (explain)

Radeon HD 6970		84480 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GTX		36800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 47680 (130%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 6970 is much (about 104%) better at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8800 GTX, and will be capable of handling higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

Radeon HD 6970		28160 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GTX		13800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 14360 (104%)

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 largest amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the better 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units 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 per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock 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 also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.