ATI Radeon HD 5970 vs NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra

Comparative analysis of ATI Radeon HD 5970 and NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra videocards for all known characteristics in the following categories: Essentials, Technical info, Video outputs and ports, Compatibility, dimensions and requirements, API support, Memory, Technologies. Benchmark videocards performance analysis: PassMark - G3D Mark, PassMark - G2D Mark, GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Frames), GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Fps), 3DMark Fire Strike - Graphics Score, GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Frames), GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Fps), GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Frames), GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Fps).

ATI Radeon HD 5970

NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra

Differences

Reasons to consider the ATI Radeon HD 5970

Videocard is newer: launch date 2 year(s) 6 month(s) later
Around 18% higher core clock speed: 725 MHz vs 612 MHz
6.6x more texture fill rate: 2x 58.0 GTexel / s billion / sec vs 39.2 billion / sec
25x more pipelines: 2x 1600 vs 128
12x better floating-point performance: 2x 2,320.0 gflops vs 387.1 gflops
A newer manufacturing process allows for a more powerful, yet cooler running videocard: 40 nm vs 90 nm
4x more maximum memory size: 2 GB vs 512 MB
3.7x more memory clock speed: 4000 MHz vs 1080 MHz
3.5x better performance in PassMark - G3D Mark: 2282 vs 643
Around 66% better performance in PassMark - G2D Mark: 418 vs 252

Specifications (specs)
Launch date	18 November 2009 vs 2 May 2007
Core clock speed	725 MHz vs 612 MHz
Texture fill rate	2x 58.0 GTexel / s billion / sec vs 39.2 billion / sec
Pipelines	2x 1600 vs 128
Floating-point performance	2x 2,320.0 gflops vs 387.1 gflops
Manufacturing process technology	40 nm vs 90 nm
Maximum memory size	2 GB vs 512 MB
Memory clock speed	4000 MHz vs 1080 MHz
Benchmarks
PassMark - G3D Mark	2282 vs 643
PassMark - G2D Mark	418 vs 252

Reasons to consider the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra

Around 75% lower typical power consumption: 171 Watt vs 300 Watt

Thermal Design Power (TDP)	171 Watt vs 300 Watt

Compare benchmarks

GPU 1: ATI Radeon HD 5970
GPU 2: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra

PassMark - G3D Mark

GPU 1

GPU 2

2282

643

PassMark - G2D Mark

GPU 1

GPU 2

418

252

Name	ATI Radeon HD 5970	NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra
PassMark - G3D Mark	2282	643
PassMark - G2D Mark	418	252
GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Frames)	3977
GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Fps)	3977
3DMark Fire Strike - Graphics Score	0
GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Frames)	3454
GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Fps)	3454
GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Frames)	3213
GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Fps)	3213

Compare specifications (specs)

	ATI Radeon HD 5970	NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra
Essentials
Architecture	TeraScale 2	Tesla
Code name	Hemlock	G80
Design	ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series
Launch date	18 November 2009	2 May 2007
Launch price (MSRP)	$699	$829
Place in performance rating	614	615
Type	Desktop	Desktop
Technical info
Boost clock speed	725 MHz
Core clock speed	725 MHz	612 MHz
Floating-point performance	2x 2,320.0 gflops	387.1 gflops
Manufacturing process technology	40 nm	90 nm
Pipelines	2x 1600	128
Texture fill rate	2x 58.0 GTexel / s billion / sec	39.2 billion / sec
Thermal Design Power (TDP)	300 Watt	171 Watt
Transistor count	2,154 million	681 million
CUDA cores		612
Video outputs and ports
Display Connectors	2x DVI, 1x mini-DisplayPort	2x DVI, 1x S-Video
DisplayPort support
Dual-link DVI support
VGA
Compatibility, dimensions and requirements
Interface	PCIe 2.0 x16	PCIe 1.0 x16
Length	305 mm	270 mm
Supplementary power connectors	1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin	2x 6-pin
API support
DirectX	11	10.0
OpenGL	4.4	3.3
Memory
Maximum RAM amount	2 GB	512 MB
Memory bandwidth	2x 128.0 GB / s	103.7 GB / s
Memory bus width	2x 256 Bit	384 Bit
Memory clock speed	4000 MHz	1080 MHz
Memory type	GDDR5	GDDR3
Technologies
AMD Eyefinity
SLI