GeForce 9600 GT 1GB vs GeForce GTX 950M

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 950M, which features GPU clock speed of 914 MHz, and 2048 MB of DDR3 RAM running at 1000 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also features 640 Stream Processors, 40 Texture Address Units, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 950M		55 Watts
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		95 Watts
	Difference: 40 Watts (73%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB should perform much faster than the GeForce GTX 950M overall. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		57600 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 950M		32000 MB/sec
	Difference: 25600 (80%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 950M is a lot (approximately 76%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 950M		36560 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		20800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 15760 (76%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 950M is superior to the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 950M		14624 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		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: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total number of 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 in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card can possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.