GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB vs GeForce GTX 480

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 480, which comes with a core clock frequency of 700 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 924 MHz. It also makes use of a 384-bit bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It is made up of 480 SPUs, 60 TAUs, and 48 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		143 Watts
GeForce GTX 480		250 Watts
	Difference: 107 Watts (75%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 480 should theoretically be much faster than the GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		177408 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		63360 MB/sec
	Difference: 114048 (180%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 480 will be a lot (approximately 71%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		42000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		24624 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 17376 (71%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 480 is a better choice, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		33600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		10260 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 23340 (227%)

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 information (counted in MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better 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 can be applied per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.