GeForce 8800 Ultra vs GeForce GTX 480

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 480, which has GPU clock speed of 700 MHz, and 1536 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 924 MHz through a 384-bit bus. It also is comprised of 480 SPUs, 60 TAUs, and 48 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8800 Ultra		171 Watts
GeForce GTX 480		250 Watts
	Difference: 79 Watts (46%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 480 should theoretically be much faster than the GeForce 8800 Ultra overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		177408 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 Ultra		103680 MB/sec
	Difference: 73728 (71%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 480 will be just a bit (more or less 7%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 8800 Ultra. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		42000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 Ultra		39168 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 2832 (7%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 480 should be much (more or less 129%) better at FSAA than the GeForce 8800 Ultra, and also should be capable of handling higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		33600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 Ultra		14688 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 18912 (129%)

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: Bandwidth is the largest amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, 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 are applied in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly write to its local memory in a 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 - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.