GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB vs GeForce GTX 560

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 560, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 810 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM works at a speed of 1001 MHz on this specific card. It features 336 SPUs along with 56 TAUs and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		90 Watts
GeForce GTX 560		150 Watts
	Difference: 60 Watts (67%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 560 should theoretically be much superior to the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560		128128 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 70528 (122%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 560 should be a lot (about 45%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560		45360 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		31200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 14160 (45%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 560 will be a lot (approximately 149%) better at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB, and also able to handle higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560		25920 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 15520 (149%)

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: Bandwidth is the largest amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, 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 texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.