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GeForce 9800 GT 512MB vs Radeon HD 6950 2GB

Intro

The GeForce 9800 GT 512MB has a GPU core speed of 600 MHz, and the 512 MB of GDDR3 memory runs at 900 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also features 112 Stream Processors, 56 Texture Address Units, and 16 ROPs.

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 6950 2GB, which features GPU core speed of 800 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 RAM running at 1250 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is made up of 1408 Stream Processors, 88 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 105 Watts
Radeon HD 6950 2GB 200 Watts
Difference: 95 Watts (90%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the Radeon HD 6950 2GB should in theory be a lot better than the GeForce 9800 GT 512MB overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 6950 2GB 160000 MB/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 57600 MB/sec
Difference: 102400 (178%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 6950 2GB is quite a bit (about 110%) better at AF than the GeForce 9800 GT 512MB. (explain)

Radeon HD 6950 2GB 70400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 33600 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 36800 (110%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 6950 2GB will be a lot (more or less 167%) better at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9800 GT 512MB, and also should be able to handle higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

Radeon HD 6950 2GB 25600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 9600 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 16000 (167%)

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.

Price Comparison

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GeForce 9800 GT 512MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 6950 2GB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

Specifications

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Model GeForce 9800 GT 512MB Radeon HD 6950 2GB
Manufacturer nVidia AMD
Year July 2008 December 2010
Code Name G92a/b Cayman Pro
Memory 512 MB 2048 MB
Core Speed 600 MHz 800 MHz
Memory Speed 1800 MHz 5000 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 105 watts 200 watts
Bandwidth 57600 MB/sec 160000 MB/sec
Texel Rate 33600 Mtexels/sec 70400 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 9600 Mpixels/sec 25600 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 112 1408
Texture Mapping Units 56 88
Render Output Units 16 32
Bus Type GDDR3 GDDR5
Bus Width 256-bit 256-bit
Fab Process 65/55 nm 40 nm
Transistors 754 million 2640 million
Bus PCIe x16 2.0 PCIe x16
DirectX Version DirectX 10 DirectX 11
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 4.1

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill 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 potential to get to the max fill rate.

Display Prices

Hide Prices

GeForce 9800 GT 512MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 6950 2GB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

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