GeForce 9600 GT 512MB vs Radeon R9 M395X

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon R9 M395X, which uses a 28 nm design. AMD has set the core frequency at 723 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM is set to run at a frequency of 1250 MHz on this card. It features 2048 SPUs as well as 128 TAUs and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		95 Watts
Radeon R9 M395X		125 Watts
	Difference: 30 Watts (32%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the Radeon R9 M395X should theoretically be a lot better than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB overall. (explain)

Radeon R9 M395X		160000 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 102400 (178%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 M395X will be quite a bit (approximately 345%) better at AF than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB. (explain)

Radeon R9 M395X		92544 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		20800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 71744 (345%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the Radeon R9 M395X is a better choice, by far. (explain)

Radeon R9 M395X		23136 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 12736 (122%)

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 data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the 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 the video card can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the core speed of the card. 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 quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.