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GeForce 9800 GT 512MB vs Radeon HD 4850 2GB

Intro

The GeForce 9800 GT 512MB features core speeds of 600 MHz on the GPU, and 900 MHz on the 512 MB of GDDR3 RAM. It features 112 SPUs along with 56 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Compare that to the Radeon HD 4850 2GB, which features clock speeds of 625 MHz on the GPU, and 993 MHz on the 2048 MB of GDDR4 memory. It features 800(160x5) SPUs along with 40 Texture Address Units and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 105 Watts
Radeon HD 4850 2GB 110 Watts
Difference: 5 Watts (5%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Radeon HD 4850 2GB will be 10% faster than the GeForce 9800 GT 512MB in general, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

Radeon HD 4850 2GB 63552 MB/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 57600 MB/sec
Difference: 5952 (10%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GT 512MB will be much (approximately 34%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the Radeon HD 4850 2GB. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 33600 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4850 2GB 25000 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 8600 (34%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the Radeon HD 4850 2GB is superior to the GeForce 9800 GT 512MB, not by a very large margin though. (explain)

Radeon HD 4850 2GB 10000 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 9600 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 400 (4%)

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

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GeForce 9800 GT 512MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 4850 2GB

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.

Specifications

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Model GeForce 9800 GT 512MB Radeon HD 4850 2GB
Manufacturer nVidia AMD
Year July 2008 Jun 25, 2008
Code Name G92a/b RV770 PRO
Memory 512 MB 2048 MB
Core Speed 600 MHz 625 MHz
Memory Speed 1800 MHz 1986 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 105 watts 110 watts
Bandwidth 57600 MB/sec 63552 MB/sec
Texel Rate 33600 Mtexels/sec 25000 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 9600 Mpixels/sec 10000 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 112 800(160x5)
Texture Mapping Units 56 40
Render Output Units 16 16
Bus Type GDDR3 GDDR4
Bus Width 256-bit 256-bit
Fab Process 65/55 nm 55 nm
Transistors 754 million 956 million
Bus PCIe x16 2.0 PCIe 2.0 x16
DirectX Version DirectX 10 DirectX 10.1
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 3.0

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, 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 the video card can possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs 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 of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.

Display Prices

Hide Prices

GeForce 9800 GT 512MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 4850 2GB

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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