GeForce 9600 GT 512MB vs GeForce GTX 960M

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 960M, which comes with a core clock frequency of 1096 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1000 MHz. It also uses a 128-bit bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It is made up of 640 SPUs, 40 Texture Address Units, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 960M		65 Watts
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		95 Watts
	Difference: 30 Watts (46%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 960M should in theory be a small bit superior to the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960M		64000 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 6400 (11%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 960M will be quite a bit (more or less 111%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960M		43840 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		20800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 23040 (111%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 960M is a better choice, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960M		17536 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 7136 (69%)

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 max amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 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, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output 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 maximum fill rate.