GeForce 9800 GT 1GB vs GeForce GTX 280

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 280, which has a core clock speed of 602 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 1107 MHz. It also features a 512-bit bus, and uses a 65 nm design. It is comprised of 240 SPUs, 80 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9800 GT 1GB		105 Watts
GeForce GTX 280		236 Watts
	Difference: 131 Watts (125%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 280 should theoretically be a lot faster than the GeForce 9800 GT 1GB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 280		141696 MB/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 1GB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 84096 (146%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 280 should be a lot (about 43%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9800 GT 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 280		48160 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 1GB		33600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 14560 (43%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 280 will be quite a bit (about 101%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9800 GT 1GB, and should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 280		19264 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 1GB		9600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 9664 (101%)

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 max amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR RAM, the result should 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 anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher 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 a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card could possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.