GeForce 8800 GS vs Radeon HD 4670 512MB

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon HD 4670 512MB, which comes with a core clock frequency of 750 MHz and a GDDR4/GDDR3/DDR3/DDR2 memory speed of 1000 MHz. It also features a 128-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 55 nm design. It is made up of 320(64x5) SPUs, 32 Texture Address Units, and 8 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 4670 512MB		70 Watts
GeForce 8800 GS		105 Watts
	Difference: 35 Watts (50%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce 8800 GS should in theory be a small bit faster than the Radeon HD 4670 512MB overall. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GS		38400 MB/sec
Radeon HD 4670 512MB		32000 MB/sec
	Difference: 6400 (20%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GS should be a little bit (about 10%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the Radeon HD 4670 512MB. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GS		26400 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4670 512MB		24000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 2400 (10%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GS should be a bit (more or less 10%) better at anti-aliasing than the Radeon HD 4670 512MB, and should be able to handle higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GS		6600 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4670 512MB		6000 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 600 (10%)

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 max amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, 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 number of pixels the video card could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka 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, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.