GeForce 9600 GT 512MB vs GeForce GTX 870M

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 870M, which has a GPU core clock speed of 941 MHz, and 3072 MB of GDDR5 RAM set to run at 1000 MHz through a 192-bit bus. It also is made up of 1344 SPUs, 112 TAUs, and 24 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		95 Watts
GeForce GTX 870M		110 Watts
	Difference: 15 Watts (16%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 870M is 67% faster than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB overall, because of its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 870M		96000 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 38400 (67%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 870M is much (more or less 407%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 870M		105392 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		20800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 84592 (407%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 870M is the winner, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 870M		22584 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 12184 (117%)

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 maximum amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total number 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 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 the video card could possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.