GeForce 8800 Ultra vs GeForce GTX 960

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 960, which has GPU core speed of 1127 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 RAM set to run at 1750 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is comprised of 1024 Stream Processors, 64 Texture Address Units, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 960		120 Watts
GeForce 8800 Ultra		171 Watts
	Difference: 51 Watts (43%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 960 should in theory be a bit better than the GeForce 8800 Ultra overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960		112000 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 Ultra		103680 MB/sec
	Difference: 8320 (8%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 960 will be quite a bit (about 84%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 8800 Ultra. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960		72128 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 Ultra		39168 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 32960 (84%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 960 is a lot (more or less 146%) faster with regards to FSAA than the GeForce 8800 Ultra, and also capable of handling higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960		36064 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 Ultra		14688 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 21376 (146%)

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 max amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.