GeForce 8800 GTS (G92) vs GeForce GTS 450

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTS 450, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 783 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM works at a frequency of 902 MHz on this particular model. It features 192 SPUs as well as 32 TAUs and 16 ROPs.

(No game benchmarks for this combination yet.)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTS 450		106 Watts
GeForce 8800 GTS (G92)		135 Watts
	Difference: 29 Watts (27%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce 8800 GTS (G92) should in theory be just a bit faster than the GeForce GTS 450 overall. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTS (G92)		62080 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 450		57728 MB/sec
	Difference: 4352 (8%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GTS (G92) should be quite a bit (more or less 66%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GTS 450. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTS (G92)		41600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 450		25056 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 16544 (66%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTS 450 is a better choice, but it probably won't make a huge difference. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450		12528 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GTS (G92)		10400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2128 (20%)

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 MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units 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 in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.