GeForce 8800 GTX vs GeForce GTS 450 1GB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTS 450 1GB, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 783 MHz. The GDDR5 memory works at a speed of 902 MHz on this model. It features 192 SPUs along with 32 TAUs and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		106 Watts
GeForce 8800 GTX		155 Watts
	Difference: 49 Watts (46%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce 8800 GTX, in theory, should be much faster than the GeForce GTS 450 1GB overall. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTX		86400 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		57728 MB/sec
	Difference: 28672 (50%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GTX should be quite a bit (about 47%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GTS 450 1GB. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTX		36800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		25056 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 11744 (47%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GTX will be a little bit (about 10%) faster with regards to FSAA than the GeForce GTS 450 1GB, and capable of handling higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTX		13800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		12528 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1272 (10%)

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 information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the card will be at handling 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 can possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as 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, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.