GeForce 8800 GT 512MB vs GeForce GTX 470

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 470, which features a clock speed of 607 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 837 MHz. It also uses a 320-bit bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It is made up of 448 SPUs, 56 TAUs, and 40 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		105 Watts
GeForce GTX 470		215 Watts
	Difference: 110 Watts (105%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 470 should in theory be much superior to the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		133920 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 76320 (133%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 470 should be just a bit (about 1%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		33992 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 392 (1%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 470 will be a lot (about 153%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB, and also capable of handling higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		24280 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		9600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 14680 (153%)

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 information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip could possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the clock 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 rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.