GeForce 8800 GT 256MB vs GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 460 (OEM), which features a clock speed of 650 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 850 MHz. It also makes use of a 256-bit memory bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It is comprised of 336 SPUs, 56 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		105 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)		150 Watts
	Difference: 45 Watts (43%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 460 (OEM), in theory, should be a lot faster than the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)		108800 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		44800 MB/sec
	Difference: 64000 (143%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 (OEM) is a bit (approximately 8%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)		36400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 2800 (8%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 (OEM) is a lot (about 117%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB, and also should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)		20800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		9600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 11200 (117%)

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 data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher 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 can be applied in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video 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 maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the clock 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 memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.