GeForce 8800 GT 512MB vs Radeon HD 7870 XT

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon HD 7870 XT, which features a core clock frequency of 925 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1500 MHz. It also makes use of a 256-bit bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It features 1536 SPUs, 96 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		105 Watts
Radeon HD 7870 XT		185 Watts
	Difference: 80 Watts (76%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon HD 7870 XT is 233% faster than the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB overall, due to its higher bandwidth. (explain)

Radeon HD 7870 XT		192000 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 134400 (233%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 7870 XT should be much (more or less 164%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB. (explain)

Radeon HD 7870 XT		88800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 55200 (164%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the Radeon HD 7870 XT is a better choice, by far. (explain)

Radeon HD 7870 XT		29600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		9600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 20000 (208%)

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 max amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR memory, it 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, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the 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 that the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.