GeForce 8800 Ultra vs GeForce GTS 450

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTS 450, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 783 MHz. The GDDR5 memory runs at a frequency of 902 MHz on this particular card. It features 192 SPUs as well as 32 Texture Address Units and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTS 450		106 Watts
GeForce 8800 Ultra		171 Watts
	Difference: 65 Watts (61%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce 8800 Ultra should in theory perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce GTS 450 in general. (explain)

GeForce 8800 Ultra		103680 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 450		57728 MB/sec
	Difference: 45952 (80%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 Ultra is much (more or less 56%) better at AF than the GeForce GTS 450. (explain)

GeForce 8800 Ultra		39168 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 450		25056 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 14112 (56%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 8800 Ultra is just a bit (about 17%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTS 450, and also should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce 8800 Ultra		14688 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 450		12528 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2160 (17%)

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 data (measured in 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 it uses DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better 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 maximum number of pixels that the graphics card can possibly record to its 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 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 rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.