GeForce 9800 GX2 vs GeForce GT 1030

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GT 1030, which comes with a GPU core clock speed of 1265 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 RAM running at 1502 MHz through a 64-bit bus. It also is made up of 384 SPUs, 32 Texture Address Units, and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 1030		30 Watts
GeForce 9800 GX2		197 Watts
	Difference: 167 Watts (557%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce 9800 GX2 should be quite a bit faster than the GeForce GT 1030 overall. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		128000 MB/sec
GeForce GT 1030		49152 MB/sec
	Difference: 78848 (160%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GX2 is quite a bit (about 90%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce GT 1030. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		76800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 1030		40480 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 36320 (90%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GT 1030 will be a small bit (about 5%) faster with regards to AA than the GeForce 9800 GX2, and also able to handle higher resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GT 1030		20240 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9800 GX2		19200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1040 (5%)

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 (measured in MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the graphics 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 the video card can possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.