GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB vs Radeon R9 280X

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon R9 280X, which makes use of a 28 nm design. AMD has set the core frequency at 850 MHz. The GDDR5 memory works at a frequency of 1500 MHz on this model. It features 2048 SPUs along with 128 TAUs and 32 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		90 Watts
Radeon R9 280X		250 Watts
	Difference: 160 Watts (178%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the Radeon R9 280X should be much faster than the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB in general. (explain)

Radeon R9 280X		288000 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 230400 (400%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 280X will be a lot (approximately 249%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB. (explain)

Radeon R9 280X		108800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		31200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 77600 (249%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon R9 280X should be much (about 162%) faster with regards to FSAA than the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB, and also should be able to handle higher screen resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

Radeon R9 280X		27200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 16800 (162%)

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 data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core 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 per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.