GeForce 8800 Ultra vs GeForce GTX 460 2GB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 460 2GB, which uses a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 675 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM works at a frequency of 900 MHz on this model. It features 336 SPUs along with 56 Texture Address Units and 32 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		160 Watts
GeForce 8800 Ultra		171 Watts
	Difference: 11 Watts (7%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 460 2GB should be a bit faster than the GeForce 8800 Ultra in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		115200 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 Ultra		103680 MB/sec
	Difference: 11520 (11%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 Ultra will be a bit (about 4%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 460 2GB. (explain)

GeForce 8800 Ultra		39168 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 2GB		37800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 1368 (4%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 2GB is much (more or less 47%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8800 Ultra, and also will be able to handle higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		21600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 Ultra		14688 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 6912 (47%)

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 maximum amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card could possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of 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 fill rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.