GeForce 9600 GT 1GB vs GeForce GTX 660

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 660, which features a GPU core clock speed of 980 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 RAM running at 1502 MHz through a 192-bit bus. It also is comprised of 960 SPUs, 80 TAUs, and 24 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		95 Watts
GeForce GTX 660		140 Watts
	Difference: 45 Watts (47%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 660 should in theory be a lot better than the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		144192 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 86592 (150%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 660 will be much (about 277%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		78400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		20800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 57600 (277%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 660 will be a lot (more or less 126%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB, and should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		23520 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		10400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 13120 (126%)

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 maximum amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, 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 number of pixels that the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on quite a few 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.