GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512 vs GeForce GTX 650

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 650, which comes with GPU core speed of 1058 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR5 RAM set to run at 1250 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also features 384 Stream Processors, 32 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 650		64 Watts
GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512		84 Watts
	Difference: 20 Watts (31%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 650 should theoretically perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 650		80000 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512		16000 MB/sec
	Difference: 64000 (400%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 650 will be much (approximately 28%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512. (explain)

GeForce GTX 650		33856 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512		26400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 7456 (28%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 650 is the winner, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 650		16928 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512		6600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 10328 (156%)

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 max amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses 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 high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video card will be at handling 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 that the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.