GeForce 8500 GT vs Radeon HD 5830

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 5830, which comes with a core clock frequency of 800 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1000 MHz. It also makes use of a 256-bit memory bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It is comprised of 1120(224x5) SPUs, 56 Texture Address Units, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8500 GT		45 Watts
Radeon HD 5830		175 Watts
	Difference: 130 Watts (289%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon HD 5830 should be 900% quicker than the GeForce 8500 GT in general, because of its greater bandwidth. (explain)

Radeon HD 5830		128000 MB/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 115200 (900%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 5830 should be much (more or less 1144%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 8500 GT. (explain)

Radeon HD 5830		44800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		3600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 41200 (1144%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high screen resolution is important to you, then the Radeon HD 5830 is superior to the GeForce 8500 GT, by far. (explain)

Radeon HD 5830		12800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		1800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 11000 (611%)

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 maximum amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.