GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB vs GeForce GTX 970

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 970, which has a core clock speed of 1050 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1750 MHz. It also uses a 256-bit bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It features 1664 SPUs, 104 TAUs, and 64 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		84 Watts
GeForce GTX 970		145 Watts
	Difference: 61 Watts (73%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 970 should be quite a bit faster than the GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970		224000 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		38400 MB/sec
	Difference: 185600 (483%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 970 is quite a bit (more or less 314%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970		109200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		26400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 82800 (314%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 970 will be much (more or less 918%) more effective at AA than the GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB, and also will be able to handle higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970		67200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		6600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 60600 (918%)

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 data (counted in MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total number of 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 applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the video card can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.