GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB vs GeForce GTX 960M

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 960M, which makes use of a 28 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 1096 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM works at a speed of 1000 MHz on this particular card. It features 640 SPUs along with 40 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 960M		65 Watts
GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		84 Watts
	Difference: 19 Watts (29%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce GTX 960M should be quite a bit faster than the GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960M		64000 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		38400 MB/sec
	Difference: 25600 (67%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 960M is a lot (more or less 66%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960M		43840 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		26400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 17440 (66%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 960M will be much (about 166%) more effective at FSAA than the GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB, and should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960M		17536 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		6600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 10936 (166%)

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 (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, 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 can be applied per second. This number 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 card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. 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 is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.