Compare any two graphics cards:

GeForce 9800 GX2 vs GeForce GTX 280

Intro

The GeForce 9800 GX2 uses a 65 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 600 MHz. The GDDR3 memory works at a frequency of 1000 MHz on this model. It features 128 SPUs along with 64 Texture Address Units and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 280, which uses a 65 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 602 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM runs at a frequency of 1107 MHz on this model. It features 240 SPUs as well as 80 TAUs and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9800 GX2		197 Watts
GeForce GTX 280		236 Watts
	Difference: 39 Watts (20%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 280 is 11% faster than the GeForce 9800 GX2 overall, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 280		141696 MB/sec
GeForce 9800 GX2		128000 MB/sec
	Difference: 13696 (11%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GX2 will be quite a bit (approximately 59%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 280. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		76800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 280		48160 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 28640 (59%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 280 should be a bit (about 0%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9800 GX2, and should be able to handle higher screen resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX 280		19264 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9800 GX2		19200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 64 (0%)

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

Display Prices

Hide Prices

GeForce 9800 GX2

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

GeForce GTX 280

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

Specifications

Display Specifications

Hide Specifications

Model	GeForce 9800 GX2	GeForce GTX 280
Manufacturer	nVidia	nVidia
Year	Mar 2008	June 17, 2008
Code Name	G92	G200
Memory	512 MB (x2)	1024 MB
Core Speed	600 MHz (x2)	602 MHz
Memory Speed	2000 MHz (x2)	2214 MHz
Power (Max TDP)	197 watts	236 watts
Bandwidth	128000 MB/sec	141696 MB/sec
Texel Rate	76800 Mtexels/sec	48160 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate	19200 Mpixels/sec	19264 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders	128 (x2)	240
Texture Mapping Units	64 (x2)	80
Render Output Units	16 (x2)	32
Bus Type	GDDR3	GDDR3
Bus Width	256-bit (x2)	512-bit
Fab Process	65 nm	65 nm
Transistors	754 million	1400 million
Bus	PCIe x16 2.0	PCIe x16 2.0
DirectX Version	DirectX 10	DirectX 10
OpenGL Version	OpenGL 3.0	OpenGL 3.1

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the largest amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs 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 rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.

Display Prices

Hide Prices