GeForce 9800 GX2 vs GeForce GTX 560

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 560, which has GPU core speed of 810 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR5 RAM running at 1001 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also features 336 Stream Processors, 56 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 560		150 Watts
GeForce 9800 GX2		197 Watts
	Difference: 47 Watts (31%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 560 should be 0% quicker than the GeForce 9800 GX2 overall, because of its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560		128128 MB/sec
GeForce 9800 GX2		128000 MB/sec
	Difference: 128 (0%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GX2 should be a lot (approximately 69%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 560. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		76800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 560		45360 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 31440 (69%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 560 is superior to the GeForce 9800 GX2, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560		25920 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9800 GX2		19200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 6720 (35%)

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 max amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card 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 clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.