GeForce 8800 Ultra vs GeForce GTX 980M

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 980M, which has a core clock frequency of 1038 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1000 MHz. It also makes use of a 256-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It features 1536 SPUs, 96 TAUs, and 64 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 980M		100 Watts
GeForce 8800 Ultra		171 Watts
	Difference: 71 Watts (71%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 980M should in theory be quite a bit better than the GeForce 8800 Ultra overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980M		128000 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 Ultra		103680 MB/sec
	Difference: 24320 (23%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 980M should be much (approximately 154%) better at AF than the GeForce 8800 Ultra. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980M		99648 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 Ultra		39168 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 60480 (154%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 980M should be quite a bit (about 352%) better at AA than the GeForce 8800 Ultra, and capable of handling higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980M		66432 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 Ultra		14688 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 51744 (352%)

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 (counted in MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's 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 texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, 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 most pixels the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.