GeForce 9600 GT 512MB vs Geforce GTX 780

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Geforce GTX 780, which comes with GPU core speed of 863 MHz, and 3072 MB of GDDR5 memory set to run at 1502 MHz through a 384-bit bus. It also is made up of 2304 Stream Processors, 192 Texture Address Units, and 48 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		95 Watts
Geforce GTX 780		250 Watts
	Difference: 155 Watts (163%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the Geforce GTX 780 should in theory be quite a bit better than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB in general. (explain)

Geforce GTX 780		288384 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 230784 (401%)

Texel Rate

The Geforce GTX 780 should be quite a bit (more or less 697%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB. (explain)

Geforce GTX 780		165696 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		20800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 144896 (697%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the Geforce GTX 780 is a better choice, by far. (explain)

Geforce GTX 780		41424 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 31024 (298%)

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 (measured in MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's 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 processed per second. This is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card can possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the core 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 rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.