GeForce 9600 GT 1GB vs GeForce GTX 560

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 560, which features a clock speed of 810 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1001 MHz. It also features a 256-bit memory bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It features 336 SPUs, 56 Texture Address Units, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		95 Watts
GeForce GTX 560		150 Watts
	Difference: 55 Watts (58%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 560, in theory, should be much faster than the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560		128128 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 70528 (122%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 560 should be much (more or less 118%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560		45360 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		20800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 24560 (118%)

Pixel Rate

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

GeForce GTX 560		25920 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		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 maximum amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better 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 maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill 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 reach the max fill rate.