GeForce 8800 Ultra vs GeForce GT 420

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GT 420, which comes with GPU clock speed of 700 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR3 memory running at 900 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also features 48 Stream Processors, 8 TAUs, and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 420		50 Watts
GeForce 8800 Ultra		171 Watts
	Difference: 121 Watts (242%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce 8800 Ultra should in theory be a lot better than the GeForce GT 420 overall. (explain)

GeForce 8800 Ultra		103680 MB/sec
GeForce GT 420		28800 MB/sec
	Difference: 74880 (260%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 Ultra will be a lot (about 599%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce GT 420. (explain)

GeForce 8800 Ultra		39168 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 420		5600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 33568 (599%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 8800 Ultra is much (about 425%) better at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GT 420, and should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce 8800 Ultra		14688 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 420		2800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 11888 (425%)

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 largest amount of information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This figure 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 card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the video card can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka 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, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.