GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB vs GeForce GTX 650

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 650, which features GPU core speed of 1058 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR5 memory set to run at 1250 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also features 384 SPUs, 32 Texture Address Units, 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 384MB		84 Watts
	Difference: 20 Watts (31%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 650 should be 108% quicker than the GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB in general, due to its greater bandwidth. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 650 should be much (about 28%) better at texture filtering 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 screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 650 is superior to the GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB, by a large margin. (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 max amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. 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 fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.