GeForce GTX 550 Ti vs GeForce GTX 960

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 960, which makes use of a 28 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 1127 MHz. The GDDR5 memory runs at a frequency of 1750 MHz on this particular model. It features 1024 SPUs as well as 64 TAUs and 32 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Benchmarks

These are real-world performance benchmarks that were submitted by Hardware Compare users. The scores seen here are the average of all benchmarks submitted for each respective test and hardware.

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics Score

GeForce GTX 960		7627 points
GeForce GTX 550 Ti		1897 points
	Difference: 5730 (302%)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 550 Ti		116 Watts
GeForce GTX 960		120 Watts
	Difference: 4 Watts (3%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 960 should be 14% faster than the GeForce GTX 550 Ti overall, because of its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960		112000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 550 Ti		98496 MB/sec
	Difference: 13504 (14%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 960 should be quite a bit (about 150%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 550 Ti. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960		72128 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 550 Ti		28800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 43328 (150%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 960 should be much (approximately 67%) more effective at AA than the GeForce GTX 550 Ti, and also should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960		36064 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 550 Ti		21600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 14464 (67%)

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 (measured in MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the graphics 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 maximum number of pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.