GeForce 8800 GTX vs GeForce 9800 GT 1GB

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce 9800 GT 1GB, which comes with a clock frequency of 600 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 900 MHz. It also features a 256-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 65/55 nm design. It is made up of 112 SPUs, 56 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9800 GT 1GB		105 Watts
GeForce 8800 GTX		155 Watts
	Difference: 50 Watts (48%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 8800 GTX should be 50% faster than the GeForce 9800 GT 1GB overall, because of its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTX		86400 MB/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 1GB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 28800 (50%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GTX should be just a bit (approximately 10%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 9800 GT 1GB. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTX		36800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 1GB		33600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 3200 (10%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce 8800 GTX is superior to the GeForce 9800 GT 1GB, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTX		13800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 1GB		9600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 4200 (44%)

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 maximum amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill 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 reach the max fill rate.