GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB vs GeForce GTX 960

Intro

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

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		84 Watts
GeForce GTX 960		120 Watts
	Difference: 36 Watts (43%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 960 is 192% quicker than the GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB overall, due to its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960		112000 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		38400 MB/sec
	Difference: 73600 (192%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 960 will be much (approximately 173%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960		72128 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		26400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 45728 (173%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 960 is much (about 446%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB, and also will be capable of handling higher resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960		36064 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		6600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 29464 (446%)

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 max amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster 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 are applied per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock 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 in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated 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 rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.