GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB vs GeForce GTX 650

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 650, which comes with a core clock speed of 1058 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1250 MHz. It also features a 128-bit bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It is comprised of 384 SPUs, 32 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 650		64 Watts
GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		84 Watts
	Difference: 20 Watts (31%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 650 should be a lot faster than the GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 650		80000 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		38400 MB/sec
	Difference: 41600 (108%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 650 will be much (more or less 28%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 650		33856 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		26400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 7456 (28%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 650 is the winner, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 650		16928 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		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: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen 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 clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the video card could possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.