GeForce 9600 GT 512MB vs GeForce GTX 850M

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 850M, which makes use of a 28 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 876 MHz. The DDR3 RAM runs at a frequency of 1000 MHz on this particular card. It features 640 SPUs as well as 40 TAUs and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 850M		40 Watts
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		95 Watts
	Difference: 55 Watts (138%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB should theoretically be quite a bit better than the GeForce GTX 850M overall. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 850M		32000 MB/sec
	Difference: 25600 (80%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 850M will be a lot (more or less 68%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 850M		35040 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		20800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 14240 (68%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 850M should be a lot (more or less 35%) better at anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB, and also capable of handling higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 850M		14016 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3616 (35%)

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 transported past the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.