GeForce 9800 GT 512MB vs GeForce GT 1030

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GT 1030, which uses a 16 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 1265 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM runs at a frequency of 1502 MHz on this specific model. It features 384 SPUs as well as 32 Texture Address Units and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 1030		30 Watts
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		105 Watts
	Difference: 75 Watts (250%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce 9800 GT 512MB should in theory be a bit better than the GeForce GT 1030 in general. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
GeForce GT 1030		49152 MB/sec
	Difference: 8448 (17%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 1030 should be a bit (approximately 20%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 9800 GT 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GT 1030		40480 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 6880 (20%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GT 1030 is a better choice, by far. (explain)

GeForce GT 1030		20240 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		9600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 10640 (111%)

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 largest amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video 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 maximum amount of pixels the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.