GeForce 8800 GS vs GeForce GTX 470

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 470, which comes with a GPU core clock speed of 607 MHz, and 1280 MB of GDDR5 RAM running at 837 MHz through a 320-bit bus. It also is made up of 448 SPUs, 56 TAUs, and 40 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8800 GS		105 Watts
GeForce GTX 470		215 Watts
	Difference: 110 Watts (105%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 470 should in theory be quite a bit faster than the GeForce 8800 GS in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		133920 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GS		38400 MB/sec
	Difference: 95520 (249%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 470 will be quite a bit (more or less 29%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 8800 GS. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		33992 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GS		26400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 7592 (29%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 470 will be much (more or less 268%) better at FSAA than the GeForce 8800 GS, and will be capable of handling higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		24280 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GS		6600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 17680 (268%)

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 largest amount of information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the better 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 texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video card will be at 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 can possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.