SiSoft Sandra 2009 - GPGPU Processing	Source: Sandra

Sisoft's Sandra's GPGPU (general purpose graphics processing unit) benchmark analyzes the ability of the GPU to perform Mandelbrot equations to generate fractals. These same types of equations are used in tasks like image processing, video encoding and scientific simulations, giving an index of how well a GPU can perform in this test.

SiSoft Sandra 2009 ver 15.72 - GPGPU Processing Native Float Shaders: (Mpixel/s) Points Ranking Gigabyte GV-R587SO-1GD 1000 ASUS EAH5850 DirectCu Top/2DIS/1GD5 744.74 ASUS ENGTX480 2DI/1536MD5 744.35 Native Double Shaders: (Mpixel/s) Points Ranking Gigabyte GV-R587SO-1GD 556.2 ASUS EAH5850 DirectCu Top/2DIS/1GD5 398.71 ASUS ENGTX480 2DI/1536MD5 151.8

The Gigabyte GVR587SO-1GD videocard has what it takes to make it as a GPGPU device, with better scores overall for both its floating-point shader performance and its double precision shaders performance as well. Given that this is some very new technology its likely that NVIDIA's lack of performance here is due to a less than optimal test configuration, rather than a failure of its CUDA technology.

SiSoft Sandra 2009 - GPGPU Memory Bandwidth	Source: Sandra

The second part of Sisoft's Sandra's GPGPU measures the videocard's memory bandwidth, which will directly affect the overall performance of GPGPU applications.

SiSoft Sandra 2009 ver 15.72 - GPGPU Memory Bandwidth Internal Memory Bandwidth: (GB/s) Points Ranking Gigabyte GV-R587SO-1GD 111 ASUS EAH5850 DirectCu Top/2DIS/1GD5 87.63 ASUS ENGTX480 2DI/1536MD5 114 Data Transfer Bandwidth: (GB/s) Points Ranking Gigabyte GV-R587SO-1GD 4.73 ASUS EAH5850 DirectCu Top/2DIS/1GD5 4.72 ASUS ENGTX480 2DI/1536MD5 5

The numbers here are much more in favor of the Geforce GTX 480, which edges out the Gigabyte GVR587SO-1GD's overclocked memory performance. The Gigabyte GVR587SO-1GD has faster GDDR5 memory (5GHz vs. 3.7GHz), but a narrower memory bus interface (256-bit vs. 384-bit), which tips the scales in NVIDIA's favor.