GeForce 8800 Ultra vs GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 460 (OEM), which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 650 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM runs at a frequency of 850 MHz on this specific card. It features 336 SPUs as well as 56 TAUs and 32 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)		150 Watts
GeForce 8800 Ultra		171 Watts
	Difference: 21 Watts (14%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 460 (OEM) should theoretically be a little bit better than the GeForce 8800 Ultra overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)		108800 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 Ultra		103680 MB/sec
	Difference: 5120 (5%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 Ultra should be a bit (approximately 8%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GTX 460 (OEM). (explain)

GeForce 8800 Ultra		39168 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)		36400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 2768 (8%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 (OEM) will be much (about 42%) faster with regards to AA than the GeForce 8800 Ultra, and will be capable of handling higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)		20800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 Ultra		14688 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 6112 (42%)

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 max amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster 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 processed per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card could possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.