GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB vs GeForce GTX 470

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 470, which has a clock speed of 607 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 837 MHz. It also features a 320-bit memory bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It is made up of 448 SPUs, 56 Texture Address Units, and 40 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		143 Watts
GeForce GTX 470		215 Watts
	Difference: 72 Watts (50%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 470 will be 111% faster than the GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB in general, because of its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		133920 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		63360 MB/sec
	Difference: 70560 (111%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 470 should be much (approximately 38%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		33992 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		24624 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 9368 (38%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 470 is the winner, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		24280 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		10260 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 14020 (137%)

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 largest amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the better 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 applied in one second. This figure 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 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 number of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.