GeForce 9800 GT 512MB vs GeForce GTX 1060 3GB

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, which has a clock speed of 1506 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 2000 MHz. It also uses a 192-bit bus, and makes use of a 16 nm design. It is made up of 1152 SPUs, 72 TAUs, and 48 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		105 Watts
GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		120 Watts
	Difference: 15 Watts (14%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce GTX 1060 3GB should be much faster than the GeForce 9800 GT 512MB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		196608 MB/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 139008 (241%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 1060 3GB should be a lot (approximately 223%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 9800 GT 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		108432 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 74832 (223%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 1060 3GB will be a lot (approximately 653%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9800 GT 512MB, and able to handle higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		72288 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		9600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 62688 (653%)

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: Memory bandwidth is the max amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.