GeForce GTS 450 1GB vs GeForce GTX 480

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 480, which features a GPU core clock speed of 700 MHz, and 1536 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 924 MHz through a 384-bit bus. It also features 480 Stream Processors, 60 TAUs, and 48 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		106 Watts
GeForce GTX 480		250 Watts
	Difference: 144 Watts (136%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 480, in theory, should perform much faster than the GeForce GTS 450 1GB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		177408 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		57728 MB/sec
	Difference: 119680 (207%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 480 will be quite a bit (more or less 68%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTS 450 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		42000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		25056 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 16944 (68%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 480 will be a lot (approximately 168%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTS 450 1GB, and also should be able to handle higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		33600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		12528 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 21072 (168%)

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 largest amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred across 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 the card has DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, 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 card can possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.