GeForce 8800 GT 512MB vs Geforce GTX 680

Intro

Compare all of that to the Geforce GTX 680, which comes with a core clock speed of 1006 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1502 MHz. It also features a 256-bit memory bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It is made up of 1536 SPUs, 128 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		105 Watts
Geforce GTX 680		195 Watts
	Difference: 90 Watts (86%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the Geforce GTX 680 should in theory be quite a bit superior to the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB overall. (explain)

Geforce GTX 680		192256 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 134656 (234%)

Texel Rate

The Geforce GTX 680 will be a lot (about 283%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB. (explain)

Geforce GTX 680		128768 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 95168 (283%)

Pixel Rate

The Geforce GTX 680 is a lot (about 235%) faster with regards to AA than the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB, and also capable of handling higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

Geforce GTX 680		32192 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		9600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 22592 (235%)

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: Memory bandwidth is the max amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video 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 amount of pixels that the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.