GeForce 8500 GT vs GeForce GTX 480

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 480, which comes with a GPU core clock speed of 700 MHz, and 1536 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 924 MHz through a 384-bit bus. It also is made up of 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 8500 GT		45 Watts
GeForce GTX 480		250 Watts
	Difference: 205 Watts (456%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 480 is 1286% faster than the GeForce 8500 GT in general, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		177408 MB/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 164608 (1286%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 480 will be a lot (about 1067%) better at AF than the GeForce 8500 GT. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		42000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		3600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 38400 (1067%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 480 will be a lot (more or less 1767%) better at FSAA than the GeForce 8500 GT, and should be capable of handling higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		33600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		1800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 31800 (1767%)

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 maximum amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant 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.