GeForce 8800 GT 512MB vs GeForce GTX 590

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 590, which features a GPU core clock speed of 607 MHz, and 1536 MB of GDDR5 memory set to run at 855 MHz through a 384-bit bus. It also is made up of 512 Stream Processors, 64 Texture Address Units, and 48 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		105 Watts
GeForce GTX 590		365 Watts
	Difference: 260 Watts (248%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 590 will be 470% quicker than the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB overall, because of its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 590		328320 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 270720 (470%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 590 is a lot (about 131%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 590		77696 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 44096 (131%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 590 is quite a bit (more or less 507%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB, and should be able to handle higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 590		58272 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		9600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 48672 (507%)

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 max amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

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