GeForce GT 420 vs GeForce GTX 480

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 480, which has GPU core speed of 700 MHz, and 1536 MB of GDDR5 RAM set to run at 924 MHz through a 384-bit bus. It also features 480 Stream Processors, 60 Texture Address Units, and 48 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 420		50 Watts
GeForce GTX 480		250 Watts
	Difference: 200 Watts (400%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 480 should be a lot faster than the GeForce GT 420 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		177408 MB/sec
GeForce GT 420		28800 MB/sec
	Difference: 148608 (516%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 480 is much (about 650%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GT 420. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		42000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 420		5600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 36400 (650%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 480 will be a lot (approximately 1100%) faster with regards to anti-aliasing than the GeForce GT 420, and also capable of handling higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		33600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 420		2800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 30800 (1100%)

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 information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the video card can possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.