GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB vs GeForce GTX 970

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 970, which comes with GPU core speed of 1050 MHz, and 4096 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 1750 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also features 1664 Stream Processors, 104 Texture Address Units, and 64 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		84 Watts
GeForce GTX 970		145 Watts
	Difference: 61 Watts (73%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 970, in theory, should be much faster than the GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970		224000 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		38400 MB/sec
	Difference: 185600 (483%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 970 is a lot (about 314%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970		109200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		26400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 82800 (314%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 970 is superior to the GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970		67200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		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: Memory bandwidth is the largest amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units 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 also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.