GeForce 8800 Ultra vs GeForce 9800 GTX

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce 9800 GTX, which makes use of a 65 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 675 MHz. The GDDR3 memory works at a speed of 1100 MHz on this specific model. It features 128 SPUs along with 64 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9800 GTX		140 Watts
GeForce 8800 Ultra		171 Watts
	Difference: 31 Watts (22%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce 8800 Ultra should theoretically be much superior to the GeForce 9800 GTX in general. (explain)

GeForce 8800 Ultra		103680 MB/sec
GeForce 9800 GTX		70400 MB/sec
	Difference: 33280 (47%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GTX will be a bit (approximately 10%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 8800 Ultra. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX		43200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 Ultra		39168 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 4032 (10%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce 8800 Ultra is a better choice, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce 8800 Ultra		14688 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9800 GTX		10800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3888 (36%)

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 information (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the better 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 processed per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.