GeForce GTS 450 1GB vs GeForce GTX 480

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 480, which comes with a clock speed of 700 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 924 MHz. It also features a 384-bit bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It is made up of 480 SPUs, 60 Texture Address Units, and 48 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

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 should theoretically perform a lot faster than the GeForce GTS 450 1GB in general. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 480 is much (more or less 68%) better at texture 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 much (about 168%) better at FSAA than the GeForce GTS 450 1GB, and able to handle higher resolutions more effectively. (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 max amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock 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 processed per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines 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 rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.