GeForce GTX 295 vs GeForce GTX 480

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 480, which comes with a GPU core clock speed of 700 MHz, and 1536 MB of GDDR5 RAM running at 924 MHz through a 384-bit bus. It also is comprised of 480 Stream Processors, 60 Texture Address Units, and 48 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 480		250 Watts
GeForce GTX 295		289 Watts
	Difference: 39 Watts (16%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 295 should be much faster than the GeForce GTX 480 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 295		223776 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 480		177408 MB/sec
	Difference: 46368 (26%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 295 is a lot (about 119%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GTX 480. (explain)

GeForce GTX 295		92160 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 480		42000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 50160 (119%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 480 is superior to the GeForce GTX 295, but not by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		33600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 295		32256 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1344 (4%)

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.

One or more cards in this comparison are multi-core. This means that their bandwidth, texel and pixel rates are theoretically doubled - this does not mean the card will actually perform twice as fast, but only that it should in theory be able to. Actual game benchmarks will give a more accurate idea of what it's capable of.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the largest amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This is calculated 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 graphics card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

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