GeForce 8500 GT vs GeForce GTS 450 1GB

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTS 450 1GB, which features a clock speed of 783 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 902 MHz. It also features a 128-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It features 192 SPUs, 32 Texture Address Units, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8500 GT		45 Watts
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		106 Watts
	Difference: 61 Watts (136%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTS 450 1GB should in theory be much superior to the GeForce 8500 GT in general. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		57728 MB/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 44928 (351%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 450 1GB is quite a bit (approximately 596%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8500 GT. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		25056 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		3600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 21456 (596%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTS 450 1GB should be a lot (about 596%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8500 GT, and will be capable of handling higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		12528 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		1800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 10728 (596%)

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 max amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better 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 texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.