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GeForce 9600 GT 512MB vs Radeon HD 4850 512MB

Intro

The GeForce 9600 GT 512MB uses a 65/55 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 650 MHz. The GDDR3 memory runs at a frequency of 900 MHz on this model. It features 64 SPUs as well as 32 Texture Address Units and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Compare all that to the Radeon HD 4850 512MB, which features a core clock speed of 625 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 993 MHz. It also uses a 256-bit bus, and makes use of a 55 nm design. It is made up of 800(160x5) SPUs, 40 Texture Address Units, and 16 ROPs.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GT 512MB 95 Watts
Radeon HD 4850 512MB 110 Watts
Difference: 15 Watts (16%)

Memory Bandwidth

The Radeon HD 4850 512MB should in theory be a small bit faster than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 4850 512MB 63552 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB 57600 MB/sec
Difference: 5952 (10%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 4850 512MB should be just a bit (about 20%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB. (explain)

Radeon HD 4850 512MB 25000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB 20800 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 4200 (20%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GT 512MB will be a little bit (more or less 4%) more effective at FSAA than the Radeon HD 4850 512MB, and should be capable of handling higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GT 512MB 10400 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4850 512MB 10000 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 400 (4%)

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:

Radeon HD 4850 512MB

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 Radeon HD 4850 512MB
Manufacturer nVidia AMD
Year Feb 2008 Jun 25, 2008
Code Name G94a/b RV770 PRO
Memory 512 MB 512 MB
Core Speed 650 MHz 625 MHz
Memory Speed 1800 MHz 1986 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 95 watts 110 watts
Bandwidth 57600 MB/sec 63552 MB/sec
Texel Rate 20800 Mtexels/sec 25000 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 10400 Mpixels/sec 10000 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 64 800(160x5)
Texture Mapping Units 32 40
Render Output Units 16 16
Bus Type GDDR3 GDDR3
Bus Width 256-bit 256-bit
Fab Process 65/55 nm 55 nm
Transistors 505 million 956 million
Bus PCIe x16 2.0 PCIe 2.0 x16
DirectX Version DirectX 10 DirectX 10.1
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 3.0

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the largest amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the graphics card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card can possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.

Display Prices

Hide Prices

GeForce 9600 GT 512MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 4850 512MB

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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