GeForce 8800 Ultra vs GeForce GTS 450

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTS 450, which comes with GPU core speed of 783 MHz, and 512 MB of GDDR5 RAM running at 902 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also features 192 SPUs, 32 Texture Address Units, and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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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 be much 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 will be much (more or less 56%) better at anisotropic filtering 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 will be a bit (about 17%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTS 450, and should be able to handle higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (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: Bandwidth is the largest amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card 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 number of pixels the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount 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 output rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.