GeForce 9800 GTX vs GeForce GTX 295

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 295, which makes use of a 55 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 576 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM is set to run at a speed of 999 MHz on this specific model. It features 240 SPUs as well as 80 TAUs and 28 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9800 GTX		140 Watts
GeForce GTX 295		289 Watts
	Difference: 149 Watts (106%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 295 is 218% faster than the GeForce 9800 GTX overall, because of its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 295		223776 MB/sec
GeForce 9800 GTX		70400 MB/sec
	Difference: 153376 (218%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 295 is a lot (approximately 113%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 9800 GTX. (explain)

GeForce GTX 295		92160 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9800 GTX		43200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 48960 (113%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 295 is the winner, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 295		32256 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9800 GTX		10800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 21456 (199%)

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.

One or more cards in this comparison are multi-core. This means that their bandwidth, texel and pixel rates are theoretically doubled - this does not mean the card will actually perform twice as fast, but only that it should in theory be able to. Actual game benchmarks will give a more accurate idea of what it's capable of.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. 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 can be applied in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

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