GeForce 9800 GTX vs GeForce GTX 480

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 480, which comes with GPU clock speed of 700 MHz, and 1536 MB of GDDR5 RAM set to run at 924 MHz through a 384-bit bus. It also features 480 SPUs, 60 TAUs, and 48 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9800 GTX		140 Watts
GeForce GTX 480		250 Watts
	Difference: 110 Watts (79%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 480 is 152% quicker than the GeForce 9800 GTX in general, because of its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		177408 MB/sec
GeForce 9800 GTX		70400 MB/sec
	Difference: 107008 (152%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GTX is just a bit (more or less 3%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 480. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX		43200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 480		42000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 1200 (3%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 480 is a better choice, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		33600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9800 GTX		10800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 22800 (211%)

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 data (counted in MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher 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 maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.