GeForce 9800 GT 512MB vs Radeon R9 M280X

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon R9 M280X, which has GPU core speed of 900 MHz, and 4096 MB of GDDR5 memory set to run at 1375 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also features 896 Stream Processors, 56 Texture Address Units, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon R9 M280X		75 Watts
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		105 Watts
	Difference: 30 Watts (40%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the Radeon R9 M280X should in theory be much better than the GeForce 9800 GT 512MB in general. (explain)

Radeon R9 M280X		88000 MB/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 30400 (53%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 M280X is much (more or less 50%) better at AF than the GeForce 9800 GT 512MB. (explain)

Radeon R9 M280X		50400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 16800 (50%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon R9 M280X will be quite a bit (about 50%) more effective at AA than the GeForce 9800 GT 512MB, and should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

Radeon R9 M280X		14400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		9600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 4800 (50%)

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 largest amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.