GeForce 9800 GX2 vs GeForce GTX 260 Core 216

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216, which comes with GPU core speed of 576 MHz, and 896 MB of GDDR3 RAM running at 999 MHz through a 448-bit bus. It also is made up of 216 SPUs, 72 TAUs, and 28 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9800 GX2		197 Watts
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		202 Watts
	Difference: 5 Watts (3%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 9800 GX2 should be 14% faster than the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 in general, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		128000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		111888 MB/sec
	Difference: 16112 (14%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GX2 is a lot (more or less 85%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		76800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		41472 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 35328 (85%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GX2 will be a bit (more or less 19%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216, and also capable of handling higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		19200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		16128 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3072 (19%)

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: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card 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 processed in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs 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 also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.