GeForce 8800 Ultra vs GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm, which uses a 55 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 576 MHz. The GDDR3 memory is set to run at a frequency of 999 MHz on this particular card. It features 216 SPUs along with 72 Texture Address Units and 28 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Both cards have the same power consumption.

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm should be 8% faster than the GeForce 8800 Ultra in general, because of its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		111888 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 Ultra		103680 MB/sec
	Difference: 8208 (8%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm is a little bit (approximately 6%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 8800 Ultra. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		41472 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 Ultra		39168 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 2304 (6%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm will be just a bit (more or less 10%) better at AA than the GeForce 8800 Ultra, and should be capable of handling higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		16128 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 Ultra		14688 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1440 (10%)

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 information (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, 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 figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the 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 that the graphics chip 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 Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.