GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB vs GeForce GTX 950M

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 950M, which comes with a GPU core clock speed of 914 MHz, and 2048 MB of DDR3 memory running at 1000 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is made up of 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 GSO 1.5GB		84 Watts
	Difference: 29 Watts (53%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB will be 20% faster than the GeForce GTX 950M overall, due to its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		38400 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 950M		32000 MB/sec
	Difference: 6400 (20%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 950M should be quite a bit (about 38%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 950M		36560 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		26400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 10160 (38%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 950M is a lot (about 122%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB, and also capable of handling higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 950M		14624 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		6600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 8024 (122%)

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 (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.