GeForce 8800 GS vs GeForce 8800 GT 256MB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB, which uses a 65 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 600 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM works at a frequency of 700 MHz on this particular card. It features 112 SPUs along with 56 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Both cards have the same power consumption.

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB should perform a small bit faster than the GeForce 8800 GS in general. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		44800 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GS		38400 MB/sec
	Difference: 6400 (17%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GT 256MB should be much (approximately 27%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8800 GS. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GS		26400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 7200 (27%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GT 256MB will be much (approximately 45%) better at AA than the GeForce 8800 GS, and able to handle higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		9600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GS		6600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3000 (45%)

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 (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. 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 applied in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the graphics card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the video card can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.