GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB vs GeForce GTX 870M

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 870M, which features a core clock speed of 941 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1000 MHz. It also makes use of a 192-bit memory bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It is made up of 1344 SPUs, 112 TAUs, and 24 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		84 Watts
GeForce GTX 870M		110 Watts
	Difference: 26 Watts (31%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 870M should theoretically be much better than the GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 870M		96000 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		38400 MB/sec
	Difference: 57600 (150%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 870M is a lot (approximately 299%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 870M		105392 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		26400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 78992 (299%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 870M is superior to the GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 870M		22584 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		6600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 15984 (242%)

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 largest amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR RAM, 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, HDR 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 number is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.