GeForce 9800 GX2 vs GeForce GTX 275

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 275, which makes use of a 55 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 633 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM runs at a speed of 1134 MHz on this specific card. It features 240 SPUs along with 80 TAUs and 28 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9800 GX2		197 Watts
GeForce GTX 275		219 Watts
	Difference: 22 Watts (11%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce 9800 GX2 will be 1% faster than the GeForce GTX 275 overall, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		128000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 275		127008 MB/sec
	Difference: 992 (1%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GX2 should be much (more or less 52%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GTX 275. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		76800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 275		50640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 26160 (52%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce 9800 GX2 is a better choice, though not by far. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		19200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 275		17724 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1476 (8%)

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.

One or more cards in this comparison are multi-core. This means that their bandwidth, texel and pixel rates are theoretically doubled - this does not mean the card will actually perform twice as fast, but only that it should in theory be able to. Actual game benchmarks will give a more accurate idea of what it's capable of.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the max amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.