GeForce GT 420 vs GeForce GTX 960

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 960, which features a GPU core clock speed of 1127 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 RAM set to run at 1750 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is made up of 1024 SPUs, 64 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 420		50 Watts
GeForce GTX 960		120 Watts
	Difference: 70 Watts (140%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 960 should theoretically be a lot superior to the GeForce GT 420 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960		112000 MB/sec
GeForce GT 420		28800 MB/sec
	Difference: 83200 (289%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 960 will be quite a bit (about 1188%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GT 420. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960		72128 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 420		5600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 66528 (1188%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 960 is a better choice, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960		36064 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 420		2800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 33264 (1188%)

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 largest amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR memory, 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 AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number 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 fill rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.