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GeForce 9800 GX2 vs GeForce GTX 260

Intro

The GeForce 9800 GX2 comes with a GPU core clock speed of 600 MHz, and the 512 MB of GDDR3 memory runs at 1000 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is comprised of 128 Stream Processors, 64 Texture Address Units, and 16 ROPs.

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 260, 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 comprised of 192 SPUs, 64 Texture Address Units, and 28 Raster Operation Units.

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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

Performance-wise, the GeForce 9800 GX2 should theoretically be just a bit better than the GeForce GTX 260 in general. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GX2 will be a lot (about 108%) better at 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 is a small bit (about 19%) faster with regards to FSAA than the GeForce GTX 260, and will be able to handle higher resolutions more effectively. (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 information (counted in MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, 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 in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the card will be at handling 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 record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.

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