GeForce 8800 GTX vs GeForce GTX 480

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 480, which features a clock speed of 700 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 924 MHz. It also makes use of a 384-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It is made up of 480 SPUs, 60 TAUs, and 48 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8800 GTX		155 Watts
GeForce GTX 480		250 Watts
	Difference: 95 Watts (61%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 480 should theoretically be quite a bit faster than the GeForce 8800 GTX in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		177408 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GTX		86400 MB/sec
	Difference: 91008 (105%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 480 will be a little bit (more or less 14%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8800 GTX. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		42000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GTX		36800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 5200 (14%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 480 is quite a bit (about 143%) better at FSAA than the GeForce 8800 GTX, and also will be able to handle higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		33600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GTX		13800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 19800 (143%)

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 (in units of MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core 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 in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as 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 of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.