GeForce 9800 GT 512MB vs GeForce GTX 660 Ti

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 660 Ti, which uses a 28 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 915 MHz. The GDDR5 memory is set to run at a speed of 1500 MHz on this card. It features 1344 SPUs as well as 112 Texture Address Units and 24 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		105 Watts
GeForce GTX 660 Ti		150 Watts
	Difference: 45 Watts (43%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 660 Ti should in theory be quite a bit better than the GeForce 9800 GT 512MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660 Ti		144000 MB/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 86400 (150%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 660 Ti will be quite a bit (about 205%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9800 GT 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660 Ti		102480 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 68880 (205%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 660 Ti should be quite a bit (approximately 129%) better at AA than the GeForce 9800 GT 512MB, and capable of handling higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660 Ti		21960 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		9600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 12360 (129%)

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 information (in units of MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total number 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 applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.