GeForce 9800 GT 512MB vs GeForce GTX 970

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 970, which comes with core clock speeds of 1050 MHz on the GPU, and 1750 MHz on the 4096 MB of GDDR5 RAM. It features 1664 SPUs along with 104 TAUs and 64 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		105 Watts
GeForce GTX 970		145 Watts
	Difference: 40 Watts (38%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 970 should in theory be much superior to the GeForce 9800 GT 512MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970		224000 MB/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 166400 (289%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 970 should be a lot (approximately 225%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce 9800 GT 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970		109200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 75600 (225%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 970 should be a lot (approximately 600%) better at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9800 GT 512MB, and also able to handle higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970		67200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		9600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 57600 (600%)

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: Bandwidth is the max amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core 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 number of pixels that the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.