GeForce 8800 GT 512MB vs Radeon HD 4770

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 4770, which makes use of a 40 nm design. AMD has set the core speed at 750 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM works at a frequency of 800 MHz on this model. It features 640(128x5) SPUs along with 32 Texture Address Units and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 4770		80 Watts
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		105 Watts
	Difference: 25 Watts (31%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB will be 13% faster than the Radeon HD 4770 overall, because of its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
Radeon HD 4770		51200 MB/sec
	Difference: 6400 (13%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GT 512MB should be quite a bit (more or less 40%) better at AF than the Radeon HD 4770. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4770		24000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 9600 (40%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the Radeon HD 4770 is the winner, by far. (explain)

Radeon HD 4770		12000 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		9600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2400 (25%)

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 (in units of MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.