GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB vs GeForce GTX 650

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 650, which features clock speeds of 1058 MHz on the GPU, and 1250 MHz on the 1024 MB of GDDR5 RAM. It features 384 SPUs along with 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 768MB		84 Watts
	Difference: 20 Watts (31%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 650 should be a lot faster than the GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 650		80000 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB		38400 MB/sec
	Difference: 41600 (108%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 650 will be quite a bit (approximately 28%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 650		33856 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB		26400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 7456 (28%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 650 is much (about 156%) more effective at AA than the GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB, and able to handle higher resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 650		16928 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB		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 (counted in MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This figure 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 card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card can possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.