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GeForce 9800 GX2 vs GeForce GTX 260

Intro

The GeForce 9800 GX2 makes use of a 65 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 600 MHz. The GDDR3 memory is set to run at a frequency of 1000 MHz on this specific model. It features 128 SPUs as well as 64 Texture Address Units and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 260, which has GPU clock speed of 576 MHz, and 896 MB of GDDR3 RAM set to run at 999 MHz through a 448-bit bus. It also features 192 SPUs, 64 Texture Address Units, and 28 ROPs.

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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 speaking, the GeForce 9800 GX2 should be 14% quicker than the GeForce GTX 260 in general, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GX2 will be much (more or less 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

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce 9800 GX2 is a better choice, though only just barely. (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

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GeForce 9800 GX2

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GeForce GTX 260

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Specifications

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Model	GeForce 9800 GX2	GeForce GTX 260
Manufacturer	nVidia	nVidia
Year	Mar 2008	June 16, 2008
Code Name	G92	G200
Memory	512 MB (x2)	896 MB
Core Speed	600 MHz (x2)	576 MHz
Memory Speed	2000 MHz (x2)	1998 MHz
Power (Max TDP)	197 watts	182 watts
Bandwidth	128000 MB/sec	111888 MB/sec
Texel Rate	76800 Mtexels/sec	36864 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate	19200 Mpixels/sec	16128 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders	128 (x2)	192
Texture Mapping Units	64 (x2)	64
Render Output Units	16 (x2)	28
Bus Type	GDDR3	GDDR3
Bus Width	256-bit (x2)	448-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 maximum amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per 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 graphics 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 amount of pixels the video card can possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour 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 output rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.

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