GeForce 9600 GT 512MB vs GeForce GT 130

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GT 130, which uses a 55 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 500 MHz. The DDR2 RAM runs at a speed of 250 MHz on this particular model. It features 48 SPUs as well as 24 Texture Address Units and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 130		75 Watts
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		95 Watts
	Difference: 20 Watts (27%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce 9600 GT 512MB, in theory, should be a lot faster than the GeForce GT 130 overall. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
GeForce GT 130		12000 MB/sec
	Difference: 45600 (380%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GT 512MB will be quite a bit (approximately 73%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce GT 130. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		20800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 130		12000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 8800 (73%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GT 512MB is quite a bit (more or less 30%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the GeForce GT 130, and also should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 130		8000 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2400 (30%)

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 (in units of MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses 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 higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card can possibly write to the local memory per 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 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.