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GeForce 9800 GT 512MB vs Radeon HD 4830 1GB

Intro

The GeForce 9800 GT 512MB uses a 65/55 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 600 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM is set to run at a frequency of 900 MHz on this specific model. It features 112 SPUs along with 56 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Compare all that to the Radeon HD 4830 1GB, which uses a 55 nm design. AMD has set the core speed at 575 MHz. The GDDR4 RAM is set to run at a speed of 900 MHz on this specific model. It features 640(128x5) SPUs along with 32 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 4830 1GB 95 Watts
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 105 Watts
Difference: 10 Watts (11%)

Memory Bandwidth

Both cards have exactly the same bandwidth, so theoretically they should perform exactly the same. (explain)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GT 512MB is quite a bit (approximately 83%) better at anisotropic filtering than the Radeon HD 4830 1GB. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 33600 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4830 1GB 18400 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 15200 (83%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GT 512MB should be just a bit (about 4%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the Radeon HD 4830 1GB, and also will be capable of handling higher screen resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 9600 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4830 1GB 9200 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

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Radeon HD 4830 1GB

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 GT 512MB Radeon HD 4830 1GB
Manufacturer nVidia AMD
Year July 2008 Oct 21, 2008
Code Name G92a/b RV770 LE
Memory 512 MB 1024 MB
Core Speed 600 MHz 575 MHz
Memory Speed 1800 MHz 1800 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 105 watts 95 watts
Bandwidth 57600 MB/sec 57600 MB/sec
Texel Rate 33600 Mtexels/sec 18400 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 9600 Mpixels/sec 9200 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 112 640(128x5)
Texture Mapping Units 56 32
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: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, the result should 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 AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the video 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 amount of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.

Display Prices

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GeForce 9800 GT 512MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 4830 1GB

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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