GeForce 8800 GTX vs GeForce GTX 460 1GB

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 460 1GB, which comes with a clock speed of 675 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 900 MHz. It also makes use of a 256-bit bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It features 336 SPUs, 56 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8800 GTX		155 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 1GB		160 Watts
	Difference: 5 Watts (3%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce GTX 460 1GB should be a lot faster than the GeForce 8800 GTX in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		115200 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GTX		86400 MB/sec
	Difference: 28800 (33%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 1GB is a bit (approximately 3%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8800 GTX. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		37800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GTX		36800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 1000 (3%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 1GB should be a lot (about 57%) better at FSAA than the GeForce 8800 GTX, and also will be able to handle higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		21600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GTX		13800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 7800 (57%)

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 information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.