GeForce 9800 GX2 vs GeForce GTX 560 Ti

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 560 Ti, which features a clock frequency of 822 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1002 MHz. It also features a 256-bit bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It is made up of 384 SPUs, 64 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 560 Ti		170 Watts
GeForce 9800 GX2		197 Watts
	Difference: 27 Watts (16%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 560 Ti should be 0% quicker than the GeForce 9800 GX2 in general, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560 Ti		128256 MB/sec
GeForce 9800 GX2		128000 MB/sec
	Difference: 256 (0%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GX2 will be a lot (more or less 46%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 560 Ti. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		76800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 560 Ti		52608 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 24192 (46%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 560 Ti is a better choice, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560 Ti		26304 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9800 GX2		19200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 7104 (37%)

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 maximum amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.