GeForce 9600 GT 1GB vs GeForce GTX 960M

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 960M, which features GPU core speed of 1096 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 memory set to run at 1000 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is made up of 640 Stream Processors, 40 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 960M		65 Watts
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		95 Watts
	Difference: 30 Watts (46%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 960M is 11% faster than the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB in general, because of its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960M		64000 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 6400 (11%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 960M should be much (approximately 111%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960M		43840 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		20800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 23040 (111%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 960M is a better choice, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960M		17536 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		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 information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core clock 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 processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card 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 colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.