GeForce 9800 GX2 vs Geforce GTX 670

Intro

Compare that to the Geforce GTX 670, which features a clock frequency of 915 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1500 MHz. It also features a 256-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It is comprised of 1344 SPUs, 112 Texture Address Units, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Geforce GTX 670		170 Watts
GeForce 9800 GX2		197 Watts
	Difference: 27 Watts (16%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Geforce GTX 670 will be 50% faster than the GeForce 9800 GX2 in general, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

Geforce GTX 670		192000 MB/sec
GeForce 9800 GX2		128000 MB/sec
	Difference: 64000 (50%)

Texel Rate

The Geforce GTX 670 is a lot (approximately 33%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 9800 GX2. (explain)

Geforce GTX 670		102480 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9800 GX2		76800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 25680 (33%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the Geforce GTX 670 is the winner, by a large margin. (explain)

Geforce GTX 670		29280 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9800 GX2		19200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 10080 (53%)

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 largest amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once 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 texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill 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 max fill rate.