GeForce 9800 GTX+ vs GeForce GTS 450 1GB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTS 450 1GB, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 783 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM runs at a speed of 902 MHz on this model. It features 192 SPUs along with 32 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

(No game benchmarks for this combination yet.)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		106 Watts
GeForce 9800 GTX+		145 Watts
	Difference: 39 Watts (37%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce 9800 GTX+ should theoretically be a lot superior to the GeForce GTS 450 1GB overall. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX+		70400 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		57728 MB/sec
	Difference: 12672 (22%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GTX+ should be quite a bit (about 89%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GTS 450 1GB. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX+		47232 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		25056 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 22176 (89%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTS 450 1GB is the winner, though only just barely. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		12528 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9800 GTX+		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 720 (6%)

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

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.