GeForce 9800 GT 512MB vs Radeon HD 7990

Intro

Compare all that to the Radeon HD 7990, which features a core clock frequency of 950 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1500 MHz. It also features a 384-bit bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It features 2048 SPUs, 128 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		105 Watts
Radeon HD 7990		375 Watts
	Difference: 270 Watts (257%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the Radeon HD 7990 should theoretically be quite a bit superior to the GeForce 9800 GT 512MB overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 7990		576000 MB/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 518400 (900%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 7990 will be much (about 624%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 9800 GT 512MB. (explain)

Radeon HD 7990		243200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 209600 (624%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 7990 is a lot (more or less 533%) more effective at FSAA than the GeForce 9800 GT 512MB, and capable of handling higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

Radeon HD 7990		60800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		9600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 51200 (533%)

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.

One or more cards in this comparison are multi-core. This means that their bandwidth, texel and pixel rates are theoretically doubled - this does not mean the card will actually perform twice as fast, but only that it should in theory be able to. Actual game benchmarks will give a more accurate idea of what it's capable of.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the max amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in one second.

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