GeForce 9800 GT 512MB vs Radeon RX 470 4GB

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon RX 470 4GB, which has a clock speed of 926 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1650 MHz. It also makes use of a 256-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 14 nm design. It is comprised of 2048 SPUs, 128 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		105 Watts
Radeon RX 470 4GB		120 Watts
	Difference: 15 Watts (14%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon RX 470 4GB is 267% quicker than the GeForce 9800 GT 512MB overall, because of its greater data rate. (explain)

Radeon RX 470 4GB		211200 MB/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 153600 (267%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon RX 470 4GB will be much (more or less 253%) better at AF than the GeForce 9800 GT 512MB. (explain)

Radeon RX 470 4GB		118528 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 84928 (253%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the Radeon RX 470 4GB is a better choice, and very much so. (explain)

Radeon RX 470 4GB		29632 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		9600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 20032 (209%)

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 (counted in MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number 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 rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.