GeForce 9800 GT 512MB vs GeForce GTX 460

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 460, which comes with GPU core speed of 675 MHz, and 768 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 900 MHz through a 192-bit bus. It also is made up of 336 Stream Processors, 56 Texture Address Units, and 24 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		105 Watts
GeForce GTX 460		150 Watts
	Difference: 45 Watts (43%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 460 should theoretically be quite a bit better than the GeForce 9800 GT 512MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460		86400 MB/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 28800 (50%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 is a bit (about 13%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 9800 GT 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460		37800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 4200 (13%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 is quite a bit (more or less 69%) more effective at FSAA than the GeForce 9800 GT 512MB, and should be able to handle higher resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460		16200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		9600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 6600 (69%)

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: Memory bandwidth is the largest amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

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

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