GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB vs GeForce 9800 GTX

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce 9800 GTX, which makes use of a 65 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 675 MHz. The GDDR3 memory is set to run at a frequency of 1100 MHz on this particular model. It features 128 SPUs as well as 64 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Battlefield Bad Company 2

Settings:	High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce 9800 GTX		25 FPS
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		6 FPS
	Difference: 19 FPS (317%)

F.E.A.R. 2

Settings:	Maximum Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Unknown (Source)

GeForce 9800 GTX		44 FPS
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		28 FPS
	Difference: 16 FPS (57%)

Fallout 3

Settings:	Very High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1680x1050
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Charts Test Rig (Source)

GeForce 9800 GTX		62 FPS
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		21 FPS
	Difference: 41 FPS (195%)

Left4Dead

Settings:	Very High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Charts Test Rig (Source)

GeForce 9800 GTX		52 FPS
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		35 FPS
	Difference: 17 FPS (49%)

Left4Dead 2

Settings:	Very High
AA:	8x
AF:	16x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce 9800 GTX		47 FPS
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		27 FPS
	Difference: 20 FPS (74%)

Mass Effect 2

Settings:	Maximum Quality
AA:	none
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce 9800 GTX		68 FPS
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		52 FPS
	Difference: 16 FPS (31%)

Supreme Commander 2

Settings:	High
AA:	8x
AF:	16x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce 9800 GTX		31 FPS
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		22 FPS
	Difference: 9 FPS (41%)

Tom Clancy's Endwar

Settings:	High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce 9800 GTX		18 FPS
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		8 FPS
	Difference: 10 FPS (125%)

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GeForce 9800 GTX wins

(Based entirely on the benchmarks listed above)

When combining all game benchmark scores on this page together, the GeForce 9800 GTX wins overall, by 165 FPS. Please note that we do not have the results of every benchmark ever done for these cards, so the results may differ wildly in different games.

GeForce 9800 GTX		399 FPS
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		234 FPS
	Difference: 165 FPS (71%)

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9800 GTX		140 Watts
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		143 Watts
	Difference: 3 Watts (2%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce 9800 GTX, in theory, should perform a bit faster than the GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB overall. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX		70400 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		63360 MB/sec
	Difference: 7040 (11%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GTX will be quite a bit (approximately 75%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX		43200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		24624 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 18576 (75%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GTX is a small bit (more or less 5%) better at anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB, and also capable of handling higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX		10800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		10260 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 540 (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.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the max amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This is worked out 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 handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. 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 lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.