GeForce 8500 GT vs GeForce GTX 480

Intro

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

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8500 GT		45 Watts
GeForce GTX 480		250 Watts
	Difference: 205 Watts (456%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 480 should theoretically be quite a bit better than the GeForce 8500 GT overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		177408 MB/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 164608 (1286%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 480 is a lot (approximately 1067%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 8500 GT. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		42000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		3600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 38400 (1067%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 480 is a better choice, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		33600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		1800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 31800 (1767%)

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 data (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number 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 fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.