GeForce 9800 GX2 vs GeForce GTX 460

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 460, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 675 MHz. The GDDR5 memory is set to run at a speed of 900 MHz on this specific model. It features 336 SPUs as well as 56 Texture Address Units and 24 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 460		150 Watts
GeForce 9800 GX2		197 Watts
	Difference: 47 Watts (31%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce 9800 GX2 should be a lot faster than the GeForce GTX 460 overall. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		128000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 460		86400 MB/sec
	Difference: 41600 (48%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GX2 is a lot (more or less 103%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 460. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		76800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460		37800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 39000 (103%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce 9800 GX2 is a better choice, not by a very large margin though. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		19200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 460		16200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3000 (19%)

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 (in units of MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at handling 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 chip could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.