GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB vs GeForce GT 420

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GT 420, which has a clock frequency of 700 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 900 MHz. It also makes use of a 128-bit bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It is comprised of 48 SPUs, 8 TAUs, and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 420		50 Watts
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		143 Watts
	Difference: 93 Watts (186%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB should perform much faster than the GeForce GT 420 overall. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		63360 MB/sec
GeForce GT 420		28800 MB/sec
	Difference: 34560 (120%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB will be much (about 340%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce GT 420. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		24624 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 420		5600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 19024 (340%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB is superior to the GeForce GT 420, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		10260 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 420		2800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 7460 (266%)

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 information (in units of MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster 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 can be applied in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the video card will be at handling 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 card could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.