GeForce 8800 GTX vs GeForce GTX 550 Ti

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 550 Ti, which has a core clock frequency of 900 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1026 MHz. It also makes use of a 192-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It is comprised of 192 SPUs, 32 TAUs, and 24 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 550 Ti		116 Watts
GeForce 8800 GTX		155 Watts
	Difference: 39 Watts (34%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 550 Ti will be 14% faster than the GeForce 8800 GTX overall, because of its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 550 Ti		98496 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GTX		86400 MB/sec
	Difference: 12096 (14%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GTX will be a lot (about 28%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 550 Ti. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTX		36800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 550 Ti		28800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 8000 (28%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 550 Ti is quite a bit (about 57%) better at AA than the GeForce 8800 GTX, and also should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 550 Ti		21600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GTX		13800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 7800 (57%)

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 maximum amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses 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 higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the 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 most pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.