GeForce 8800 GTS (G92) vs GeForce 9800 GX2

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce 9800 GX2, which comes with a GPU core clock speed of 600 MHz, and 512 MB of GDDR3 memory running at 1000 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is made up of 128 SPUs, 64 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.

(No game benchmarks for this combination yet.)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8800 GTS (G92)		135 Watts
GeForce 9800 GX2		197 Watts
	Difference: 62 Watts (46%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce 9800 GX2 should theoretically be a lot faster than the GeForce 8800 GTS (G92) in general. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		128000 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GTS (G92)		62080 MB/sec
	Difference: 65920 (106%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GX2 should be quite a bit (more or less 85%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8800 GTS (G92). (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		76800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GTS (G92)		41600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 35200 (85%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GX2 is quite a bit (more or less 85%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8800 GTS (G92), and also should be able to handle higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		19200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GTS (G92)		10400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 8800 (85%)

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 largest amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the clock 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 memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.