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GeForce 9800 GX2 vs GeForce GTX 580

Intro

The GeForce 9800 GX2 features a GPU core clock speed of 600 MHz, and the 512 MB of GDDR3 RAM runs at 1000 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is comprised of 128 Stream Processors, 64 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 580, which uses a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 772 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM runs at a frequency of 1002 MHz on this card. It features 512 SPUs along with 64 Texture Address Units and 48 Rasterization Operator Units.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9800 GX2 197 Watts
GeForce GTX 580 244 Watts
Difference: 47 Watts (24%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 580 should perform much faster than the GeForce 9800 GX2 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 192384 MB/sec
GeForce 9800 GX2 128000 MB/sec
Difference: 64384 (50%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GX2 should be a lot (approximately 55%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 580. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2 76800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 580 49408 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 27392 (55%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 is a lot (more or less 93%) better at FSAA than the GeForce 9800 GX2, and will be able to handle higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 37056 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9800 GX2 19200 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 17856 (93%)

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

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GeForce 9800 GX2

Amazon.com

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GeForce GTX 580

Amazon.com

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Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

Specifications

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Model GeForce 9800 GX2 GeForce GTX 580
Manufacturer nVidia nVidia
Year Mar 2008 November 2010
Code Name G92 GF110
Memory 512 MB (x2) 1536 MB
Core Speed 600 MHz (x2) 772 MHz
Memory Speed 2000 MHz (x2) 4008 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 197 watts 244 watts
Bandwidth 128000 MB/sec 192384 MB/sec
Texel Rate 76800 Mtexels/sec 49408 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 19200 Mpixels/sec 37056 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 128 (x2) 512
Texture Mapping Units 64 (x2) 64
Render Output Units 16 (x2) 48
Bus Type GDDR3 GDDR5
Bus Width 256-bit (x2) 384-bit
Fab Process 65 nm 40 nm
Transistors 754 million 3000 million
Bus PCIe x16 2.0 PCIe x16
DirectX Version DirectX 10 DirectX 11
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 4.1

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the largest amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, 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 are applied per second. This is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the video card can possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.

Display Prices

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GeForce 9800 GX2

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

GeForce GTX 580

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

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