GeForce 820M vs GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB, which uses a 65/55 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 650 MHz. The GDDR3 memory works at a frequency of 900 MHz on this particular card. It features 96 SPUs as well as 48 Texture Address Units and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 820M		15 Watts
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		90 Watts
	Difference: 75 Watts (500%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB should perform much faster than the GeForce 820M overall. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		57600 MB/sec
GeForce 820M		16000 MB/sec
	Difference: 41600 (260%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB will be much (about 171%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 820M. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		31200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 820M		11504 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 19696 (171%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB will be quite a bit (more or less 262%) faster with regards to AA than the GeForce 820M, and should be capable of handling higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 820M		2876 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 7524 (262%)

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 MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This number 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 texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka 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 - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.