GeForce 9800 GX2 vs GeForce GTX 260 Core 216

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216, which features a clock frequency of 576 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 999 MHz. It also features a 448-bit bus, and uses a 65 nm design. It features 216 SPUs, 72 Texture Address Units, and 28 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9800 GX2		197 Watts
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		202 Watts
	Difference: 5 Watts (3%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce 9800 GX2 should be just a bit faster than the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 in general. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		128000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		111888 MB/sec
	Difference: 16112 (14%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GX2 will be quite a bit (more or less 85%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		76800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		41472 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 35328 (85%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce 9800 GX2 is a better choice, but not by far. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		19200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		16128 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3072 (19%)

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 maximum amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If the card has 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 anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core 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 processed per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.