GeForce 9800 GT 1GB vs GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 460 (OEM), which has core speeds of 650 MHz on the GPU, and 850 MHz on the 1024 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 336 SPUs along with 56 Texture Address Units and 32 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9800 GT 1GB		105 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)		150 Watts
	Difference: 45 Watts (43%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce GTX 460 (OEM) should be a lot faster than the GeForce 9800 GT 1GB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)		108800 MB/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 1GB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 51200 (89%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 (OEM) should be a small bit (more or less 8%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 9800 GT 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)		36400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 1GB		33600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 2800 (8%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 460 (OEM) is the winner, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)		20800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 1GB		9600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 11200 (117%)

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 max amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs 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 fill rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.