GeForce 9800 GT 512MB vs GeForce 9800 GTX

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce 9800 GTX, which comes with a clock frequency of 675 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 1100 MHz. It also uses a 256-bit memory bus, and uses a 65 nm design. It is made up of 128 SPUs, 64 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		105 Watts
GeForce 9800 GTX		140 Watts
	Difference: 35 Watts (33%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce 9800 GTX should in theory be much better than the GeForce 9800 GT 512MB overall. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX		70400 MB/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 12800 (22%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GTX should be quite a bit (approximately 29%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 9800 GT 512MB. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX		43200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 9600 (29%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce 9800 GTX is superior to the GeForce 9800 GT 512MB, but only just. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX		10800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		9600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1200 (13%)

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 data (counted in MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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