GeForce 8800 Ultra vs GeForce GTX 960

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 960, which makes use of a 28 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 1127 MHz. The GDDR5 memory works at a frequency of 1750 MHz on this particular card. It features 1024 SPUs along with 64 Texture Address Units and 32 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

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

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 960 should theoretically be just a bit superior to 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 should 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 should be a lot (approximately 146%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8800 Ultra, and will be able to handle higher screen resolutions better. (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: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, 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 are applied per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total amount of 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 processed in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip could possibly write to its local memory per 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 - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.