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GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB vs Radeon HD 5830

Intro

The GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB makes use of a 90 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 513 MHz. The GDDR3 memory runs at a speed of 792 MHz on this specific model. It features 96 SPUs as well as 48 TAUs and 20 ROPs.

Compare that to the Radeon HD 5830, which comes with a clock frequency of 800 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1000 MHz. It also features a 256-bit bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It is made up of 1120(224x5) SPUs, 56 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		143 Watts
Radeon HD 5830		175 Watts
	Difference: 32 Watts (22%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the Radeon HD 5830 should perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB in general. (explain)

Radeon HD 5830		128000 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		63360 MB/sec
	Difference: 64640 (102%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 5830 will be quite a bit (approximately 82%) better at AF than the GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB. (explain)

Radeon HD 5830		44800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		24624 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 20176 (82%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 5830 will be quite a bit (more or less 25%) more effective at AA than the GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB, and should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

Radeon HD 5830		12800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		10260 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2540 (25%)

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

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GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB

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Specifications

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Model	GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB	Radeon HD 5830
Manufacturer	nVidia	AMD
Year	Feb 2007	February 25, 2010
Code Name	G80	Cypress LE
Memory	320 MB	1024 MB
Core Speed	513 MHz	800 MHz
Memory Speed	1584 MHz	4000 MHz
Power (Max TDP)	143 watts	175 watts
Bandwidth	63360 MB/sec	128000 MB/sec
Texel Rate	24624 Mtexels/sec	44800 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate	10260 Mpixels/sec	12800 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders	96	1120(224x5)
Texture Mapping Units	48	56
Render Output Units	20	16
Bus Type	GDDR3	GDDR5
Bus Width	320-bit	256-bit
Fab Process	90 nm	40 nm
Transistors	681 million	2154 million
Bus	PCIe x16	PCIe 2.1 x16
DirectX Version	DirectX 10	DirectX 11
OpenGL Version	OpenGL 3.0	OpenGL 3.2

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the largest amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.

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