GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB vs GeForce GTX 860M

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 860M, which features clock speeds of 797 MHz on the GPU, and 1000 MHz on the 4096 MB of GDDR5 RAM. It features 1152 SPUs as well as 96 Texture Address Units and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 860M		45 Watts
GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		84 Watts
	Difference: 39 Watts (87%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 860M will be 67% quicker than the GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB overall, because of its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 860M		64000 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		38400 MB/sec
	Difference: 25600 (67%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 860M is much (more or less 190%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 860M		76512 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		26400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 50112 (190%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 860M will be quite a bit (more or less 93%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB, and able to handle higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 860M		12752 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		6600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 6152 (93%)

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 megabytes per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are 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 the texel rate, 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 amount of pixels the video card could possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.