GeForce 8500 GT vs GeForce 9800 GT 1GB

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce 9800 GT 1GB, which comes with a core clock frequency of 600 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 900 MHz. It also features a 256-bit memory bus, and uses a 65/55 nm design. It features 112 SPUs, 56 Texture Address Units, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8500 GT		45 Watts
GeForce 9800 GT 1GB		105 Watts
	Difference: 60 Watts (133%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce 9800 GT 1GB is 350% quicker than the GeForce 8500 GT in general, because of its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GT 1GB		57600 MB/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 44800 (350%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GT 1GB is much (about 833%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 8500 GT. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GT 1GB		33600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		3600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 30000 (833%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce 9800 GT 1GB is the winner, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GT 1GB		9600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		1800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 7800 (433%)

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 largest amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card can possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.