GeForce 9800 GX2 vs GeForce GTX 980

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 980, which features a clock frequency of 1126 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1750 MHz. It also features a 256-bit bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It is made up of 2048 SPUs, 128 TAUs, and 64 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 980		165 Watts
GeForce 9800 GX2		197 Watts
	Difference: 32 Watts (19%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 980 should be 75% faster than the GeForce 9800 GX2 in general, because of its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980		224000 MB/sec
GeForce 9800 GX2		128000 MB/sec
	Difference: 96000 (75%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 980 is much (more or less 88%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 9800 GX2. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980		144128 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9800 GX2		76800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 67328 (88%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 980 is the winner, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980		72064 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9800 GX2		19200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 52864 (275%)

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 maximum amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the better 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 texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.