GeForce 8800 GTX vs GeForce 9800 GTX

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce 9800 GTX, which has a GPU core clock speed of 675 MHz, and 512 MB of GDDR3 memory running at 1100 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is comprised 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 GTX		140 Watts
GeForce 8800 GTX		155 Watts
	Difference: 15 Watts (11%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 8800 GTX will be 23% quicker than the GeForce 9800 GTX overall, due to its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTX		86400 MB/sec
GeForce 9800 GTX		70400 MB/sec
	Difference: 16000 (23%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GTX is a small bit (about 17%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8800 GTX. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX		43200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GTX		36800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 6400 (17%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce 8800 GTX is a better choice, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTX		13800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9800 GTX		10800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3000 (28%)

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 maximum amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core 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 a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount 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 calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.