The HD 4850 and 9800 GTX are high-end graphics cards released in 2008 by ATI and Nvidia. These older cards only provide basic performance for modern video games, but are capable of handling everyday tasks like streaming movies, Web browsing and most older games. The versions of these cards produced by XFX include several different models such as stock cards and cards with an overclocked graphics processing unit (GPU) and memory that offer improved performance over stock configurations.
Graphics Processors
The HD 4850 uses the RV770 GPU and the 9800 GTX uses the G92 GPU. The RV770 has a stock speed of 625 MHz, while the G92 is rated at 675 MHz. The XFX versions of these cards overclock the RV770 up to 650 MHz and the G92 up to 760 MHz.
Memory
The RAM used in these two cards uses the GDR3 memory standard. The XFX HD 4850s are available in 512 MB and 1 GB configurations, while the XFX 9800 GTXs are only available in a 512 MB configuration. The stock version of the 4850 has a memory clock speed of 993 MHz and the 9800 GTX is rated at 1,100 MHz. The XFX versions of these cards put the 4850's memory clock up to 1,050 MHz and the 9800 GTX at 1,140 MHz. The HD 4850 and 9800 GTX both use a 256-bit memory bus; however, the 9800 uses four 64-bit data channels, while the 4850 uses eight 32-bit channels.
Design
One of the key differences between the HD 4850 and 9800 GTX is how their GPU architecture processes information. The number of stream processors that a GPU supports directly impacts its performance in 3D graphics applications. The HD 4850 supports 800 stream processors, while the 9800 GTX only supports 128, giving the HD 4850 a significant advantage over the 9800 GTX. The HD 4850 is also more efficient than the 9800 GTX. The 4850 has a maximum power draw of 110 watts, while the 9800 pulls up to 168 watts of power under peak loads.
Features
The HD 4850 and 9800 GTX both support software using Application Programming Interfaces compatible with DirectX 10. Since the HD 4850 was released later in the year, it supports later revisions of the DirectX 10 APIs. The 4850 supports DirectX 10.1 and Shader Model 4.1, while the 9800 only supports Direct X10 and Shader Model 4.0. Both the 4850 and 9800 support the OpenGL 2.1 API.
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