GeForce 9800 GTX vs GeForce GTS 450 1GB

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTS 450 1GB, which features a clock speed of 783 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 902 MHz. It also makes use of a 128-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It is made up of 192 SPUs, 32 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		106 Watts
GeForce 9800 GTX		140 Watts
	Difference: 34 Watts (32%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce 9800 GTX should in theory perform much faster than the GeForce GTS 450 1GB in general. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX		70400 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		57728 MB/sec
	Difference: 12672 (22%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GTX should be much (about 72%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GTS 450 1GB. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX		43200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		25056 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 18144 (72%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTS 450 1GB is a better choice, but not by far. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		12528 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9800 GTX		10800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1728 (16%)

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 max amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the better 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 can be applied in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a 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. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.