GeForce 9800 GX2 vs GeForce GTX 260

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 260, which makes use of a 65 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 576 MHz. The GDDR3 memory is set to run at a frequency of 999 MHz on this particular model. It features 192 SPUs along with 64 TAUs and 28 Rasterization Operator Units.

Left4Dead 2

Settings:	Very High
AA:	8x
AF:	16x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce 9800 GX2		81 FPS
GeForce GTX 260		69 FPS
	Difference: 12 FPS (17%)

Supreme Commander 2

Settings:	High
AA:	8x
AF:	16x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce 9800 GX2		55 FPS
GeForce GTX 260		34 FPS
	Difference: 21 FPS (62%)

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GeForce 9800 GX2 wins

(Based entirely on the benchmarks listed above)

When combining all game benchmark scores on this page together, the GeForce 9800 GX2 wins overall, by 33 FPS. Please note that we do not have the results of every benchmark ever done for these cards, so the results may differ wildly in different games.

GeForce 9800 GX2		136 FPS
GeForce GTX 260		103 FPS
	Difference: 33 FPS (32%)

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 260		182 Watts
GeForce 9800 GX2		197 Watts
	Difference: 15 Watts (8%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce 9800 GX2 should perform a small bit faster than the GeForce GTX 260 overall. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GX2 will be quite a bit (about 108%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 260. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		76800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 260		36864 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 39936 (108%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GX2 should be a small bit (approximately 19%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 260, and also should be able to handle higher resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		19200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 260		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 data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses 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 are processed in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out 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 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 maximum fill rate.