GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB vs GeForce GT 640 DDR3

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GT 640 DDR3, which uses a 28 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 900 MHz. The DDR3 RAM is set to run at a speed of 1782 MHz on this specific card. It features 384 SPUs as well as 32 TAUs 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 384MB		84 Watts
	Difference: 19 Watts (29%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GT 640 DDR3 will be 49% faster than the GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB in general, due to its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GT 640 DDR3		57024 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		38400 MB/sec
	Difference: 18624 (49%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 640 DDR3 will be just a bit (about 9%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB. (explain)

GeForce GT 640 DDR3		28800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		26400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 2400 (9%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GT 640 DDR3 is a better choice, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GT 640 DDR3		14400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		6600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 7800 (118%)

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 MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total amount 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 in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines 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 lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.