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GeForce 9600 GT 512MB vs GeForce GTS 250 1GB

Intro

The GeForce 9600 GT 512MB makes use of a 65/55 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 650 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM works at a frequency of 900 MHz on this card. It features 64 SPUs as well as 32 Texture Address Units and 16 ROPs.

Compare all that to the GeForce GTS 250 1GB, which features a clock speed of 738 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 1100 MHz. It also features a 256-bit memory bus, and uses a 65/55 nm design. It features 128 SPUs, 64 Texture Address Units, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GT 512MB 95 Watts
GeForce GTS 250 1GB 145 Watts
Difference: 50 Watts (53%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTS 250 1GB will be 22% quicker than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB overall, because of its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB 70400 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB 57600 MB/sec
Difference: 12800 (22%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 1GB should be quite a bit (approximately 127%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB 47232 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB 20800 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 26432 (127%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 1GB should be a bit (about 14%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB, and will be capable of handling higher resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB 11808 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB 10400 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 1408 (14%)

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

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GeForce 9600 GT 512MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

GeForce GTS 250 1GB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

Specifications

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Model GeForce 9600 GT 512MB GeForce GTS 250 1GB
Manufacturer nVidia nVidia
Year Feb 2008 March 3, 2009
Code Name G94a/b G92a/b
Memory 512 MB 1024 MB
Core Speed 650 MHz 738 MHz
Memory Speed 1800 MHz 2200 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 95 watts 145 watts
Bandwidth 57600 MB/sec 70400 MB/sec
Texel Rate 20800 Mtexels/sec 47232 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 10400 Mpixels/sec 11808 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 64 128
Texture Mapping Units 32 64
Render Output Units 16 16
Bus Type GDDR3 GDDR3
Bus Width 256-bit 256-bit
Fab Process 65/55 nm 65/55 nm
Transistors 505 million 754 million
Bus PCIe x16 2.0 PCIe x16 2.0
DirectX Version DirectX 10 DirectX 10
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 3.1

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the max amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the better 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.

Display Prices

Hide Prices

GeForce 9600 GT 512MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

GeForce GTS 250 1GB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

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