GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB vs GeForce GTX 660 Ti

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 660 Ti, which comes with core speeds of 915 MHz on the GPU, and 1500 MHz on the 2048 MB of GDDR5 RAM. It features 1344 SPUs along with 112 TAUs and 24 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 660 Ti		150 Watts
	Difference: 66 Watts (79%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 660 Ti should in theory be much better than the GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660 Ti		144000 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		38400 MB/sec
	Difference: 105600 (275%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 660 Ti is quite a bit (about 288%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660 Ti		102480 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		26400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 76080 (288%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 660 Ti is a better choice, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660 Ti		21960 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		6600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 15360 (233%)

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 (counted in MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units 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 per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.