GeForce 8800 GT 256MB vs GeForce 9800 GX2

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce 9800 GX2, which uses a 65 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 600 MHz. The GDDR3 memory runs at a speed of 1000 MHz on this particular model. It features 128 SPUs along with 64 Texture Address Units and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		105 Watts
GeForce 9800 GX2		197 Watts
	Difference: 92 Watts (88%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce 9800 GX2 should in theory be much better than the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB in general. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		128000 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		44800 MB/sec
	Difference: 83200 (186%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GX2 is much (more or less 129%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		76800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 43200 (129%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce 9800 GX2 is superior to the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB, by far. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		19200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		9600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 9600 (100%)

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: Bandwidth is the largest amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the graphics 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 most pixels the video card could 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 ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.