GeForce 9600 GT 512MB vs GeForce GTX 950M

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 950M, which features GPU core speed of 914 MHz, and 2048 MB of DDR3 memory set to run at 1000 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is made up of 640 Stream Processors, 40 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 950M		55 Watts
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		95 Watts
	Difference: 40 Watts (73%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB is 80% faster than the GeForce GTX 950M in general, due to its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 950M		32000 MB/sec
	Difference: 25600 (80%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 950M should be much (approximately 76%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 950M		36560 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		20800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 15760 (76%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 950M is the winner, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 950M		14624 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 4224 (41%)

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 information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, 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 that the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core speed of the card. 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 rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.