GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB vs Radeon HD 4650 512MB

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon HD 4650 512MB, which uses a 55 nm design. AMD has clocked the core speed at 600 MHz. The DDR2 memory runs at a speed of 500 MHz on this specific model. It features 320(64x5) SPUs along with 32 TAUs and 8 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 4650 512MB		55 Watts
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		90 Watts
	Difference: 35 Watts (64%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB is 260% quicker than the Radeon HD 4650 512MB in general, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		57600 MB/sec
Radeon HD 4650 512MB		16000 MB/sec
	Difference: 41600 (260%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB should be a lot (more or less 63%) faster with regards to AF than the Radeon HD 4650 512MB. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		31200 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4650 512MB		19200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 12000 (63%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB is the winner, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4650 512MB		4800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 5600 (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 largest amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core 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 rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.