GeForce 9800 GX2 vs GeForce GTX 470

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 470, which features clock speeds of 607 MHz on the GPU, and 837 MHz on the 1280 MB of GDDR5 RAM. It features 448 SPUs along with 56 TAUs and 40 Rasterization Operator Units.

Left4Dead 2

Settings:	Very High
AA:	8x
AF:	16x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTX 470		124 FPS
GeForce 9800 GX2		81 FPS
	Difference: 43 FPS (53%)

Supreme Commander 2

Settings:	High
AA:	8x
AF:	16x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTX 470		99 FPS
GeForce 9800 GX2		55 FPS
	Difference: 44 FPS (80%)

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GeForce GTX 470 wins

(Based entirely on the benchmarks listed above)

When combining all game benchmark scores on this page together, the GeForce GTX 470 wins overall, by 87 FPS. Please note that we do not have the results of every benchmark ever done for these cards, so the results may differ wildly in different games.

GeForce GTX 470		223 FPS
GeForce 9800 GX2		136 FPS
	Difference: 87 FPS (64%)

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9800 GX2		197 Watts
GeForce GTX 470		215 Watts
	Difference: 18 Watts (9%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 470 should perform a bit faster than the GeForce 9800 GX2 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		133920 MB/sec
GeForce 9800 GX2		128000 MB/sec
	Difference: 5920 (5%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GX2 is quite a bit (more or less 126%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 470. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		76800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 470		33992 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 42808 (126%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 470 should be a lot (approximately 26%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9800 GX2, and will be able to handle higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		24280 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9800 GX2		19200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 5080 (26%)

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: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card can 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 ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.