GeForce GTX 480 vs GeForce GTX 660

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 660, which comes with GPU clock speed of 980 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 memory set to run at 1502 MHz through a 192-bit bus. It also is comprised of 960 Stream Processors, 80 TAUs, and 24 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Benchmarks

These are real-world performance benchmarks that were submitted by Hardware Compare users. The scores seen here are the average of all benchmarks submitted for each respective test and hardware.

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics Score

GeForce GTX 660		5063 points
GeForce GTX 480		3650 points
	Difference: 1413 (39%)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 660		140 Watts
GeForce GTX 480		250 Watts
	Difference: 110 Watts (79%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 480 is 23% faster than the GeForce GTX 660 in general, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		177408 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 660		144192 MB/sec
	Difference: 33216 (23%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 660 will be much (more or less 87%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GTX 480. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		78400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 480		42000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 36400 (87%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high 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 GTX 660		23520 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 10080 (43%)

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 largest amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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