GeForce 8800 GT 256MB vs GeForce GTX 460

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 460, which has GPU clock speed of 675 MHz, and 768 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 900 MHz through a 192-bit bus. It also is made up of 336 SPUs, 56 TAUs, and 24 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

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

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 460 should theoretically be quite a bit superior to the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460		86400 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		44800 MB/sec
	Difference: 41600 (93%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 should be a small bit (more or less 13%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460		37800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 4200 (13%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 is quite a bit (about 69%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB, and also should be able to handle higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460		16200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		9600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 6600 (69%)

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 largest amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card could possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.