GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB vs Geforce GTX 680

Intro

Compare that to the Geforce GTX 680, which comes with core speeds of 1006 MHz on the GPU, and 1502 MHz on the 2048 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 1536 SPUs along with 128 TAUs and 32 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		84 Watts
Geforce GTX 680		195 Watts
	Difference: 111 Watts (132%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the Geforce GTX 680 should be much faster than the GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB in general. (explain)

Geforce GTX 680		192256 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		38400 MB/sec
	Difference: 153856 (401%)

Texel Rate

The Geforce GTX 680 should be a lot (approximately 388%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB. (explain)

Geforce GTX 680		128768 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		26400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 102368 (388%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the Geforce GTX 680 is a better choice, by far. (explain)

Geforce GTX 680		32192 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		6600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 25592 (388%)

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 (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount 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 quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.