GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB vs GeForce GT 640 DDR3

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GT 640 DDR3, which makes use of a 28 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 900 MHz. The DDR3 memory runs at a frequency of 1782 MHz on this specific card. It features 384 SPUs along with 32 Texture Address Units and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 640 DDR3		65 Watts
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		90 Watts
	Difference: 25 Watts (38%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB should theoretically be just a bit better than the GeForce GT 640 DDR3 overall. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		57600 MB/sec
GeForce GT 640 DDR3		57024 MB/sec
	Difference: 576 (1%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB will be a small bit (more or less 8%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GT 640 DDR3. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		31200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 640 DDR3		28800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 2400 (8%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GT 640 DDR3 is the winner, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GT 640 DDR3		14400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 4000 (38%)

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 largest amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.