GeForce 9600 GT 512MB vs GeForce 9800 GTX

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce 9800 GTX, which features a clock speed of 675 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 1100 MHz. It also features a 256-bit bus, and uses a 65 nm design. It is comprised of 128 SPUs, 64 Texture Address Units, and 16 ROPs.

F.E.A.R. 2

Settings:	Maximum Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Unknown (Source)

GeForce 9800 GTX		44 FPS
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		31 FPS
	Difference: 13 FPS (42%)

Fallout 3

Settings:	Very High Quality
AA:	8x
AF:	16x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce 9800 GTX		37 FPS
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		32 FPS
	Difference: 5 FPS (16%)

Fallout 3

Settings:	Very High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1680x1050
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Charts Test Rig (Source)

GeForce 9800 GTX		62 FPS
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		50 FPS
	Difference: 12 FPS (24%)

Left4Dead

Settings:	Very High Quality
AA:	8x
AF:	16x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce 9800 GTX		41 FPS
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		31 FPS
	Difference: 10 FPS (32%)

Left4Dead

Settings:	Very High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Charts Test Rig (Source)

GeForce 9800 GTX		52 FPS
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		37 FPS
	Difference: 15 FPS (41%)

Tom Clancy's Endwar

Settings:	High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce 9800 GTX		18 FPS
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		15 FPS
	Difference: 3 FPS (20%)

Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X

Settings:	High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1680x1050
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Charts Test Rig (Source)

GeForce 9800 GTX		36 FPS
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		26 FPS
	Difference: 10 FPS (38%)

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GeForce 9800 GTX wins

(Based entirely on the benchmarks listed above)

When combining all game benchmark scores on this page together, the GeForce 9800 GTX wins overall, by 68 FPS. Please note that we do not have the results of every benchmark ever done for these cards, so the results may differ wildly in different games.

GeForce 9800 GTX		290 FPS
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		222 FPS
	Difference: 68 FPS (31%)

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		95 Watts
GeForce 9800 GTX		140 Watts
	Difference: 45 Watts (47%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 9800 GTX should be 22% faster than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB overall, due to its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX		70400 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 12800 (22%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GTX will be a lot (approximately 108%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX		43200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		20800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 22400 (108%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GTX is a little bit (approximately 4%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB, and should be able to handle higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX		10800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 400 (4%)

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: Bandwidth is the largest amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.