GeForce 8300 GS (OEM) vs GeForce 9800 GX2

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce 9800 GX2, which comes with clock speeds of 600 MHz on the GPU, and 1000 MHz on the 512 MB of GDDR3 RAM. It features 128 SPUs along with 64 TAUs and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8300 GS (OEM)		40 Watts
GeForce 9800 GX2		197 Watts
	Difference: 157 Watts (393%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 9800 GX2 is 1900% quicker than the GeForce 8300 GS (OEM) overall, due to its greater bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		128000 MB/sec
GeForce 8300 GS (OEM)		6400 MB/sec
	Difference: 121600 (1900%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GX2 is much (more or less 4167%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 8300 GS (OEM). (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		76800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8300 GS (OEM)		1800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 75000 (4167%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GX2 should be quite a bit (more or less 2033%) more effective at AA than the GeForce 8300 GS (OEM), and also will be capable of handling higher screen resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		19200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8300 GS (OEM)		900 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 18300 (2033%)

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 (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.