GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB vs GeForce GTX 650

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 650, which has core clock speeds of 1058 MHz on the GPU, and 1250 MHz on the 1024 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 384 SPUs as well as 32 Texture Address Units and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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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

The GeForce GTX 650 should theoretically perform 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 (approximately 28%) better at 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

The GeForce GTX 650 is a lot (about 156%) better at AA than the GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB, and also should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (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: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR memory, the result 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 AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.