GeForce 9600 GT 1GB vs GeForce 9800 GTX+

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce 9800 GTX+, which makes use of a 55 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 738 MHz. The GDDR3 memory is set to run at a frequency of 1100 MHz on this particular model. It features 128 SPUs as well as 64 Texture Address Units and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

F.E.A.R. 2

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

GeForce 9800 GTX+		48 FPS
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		31 FPS
	Difference: 17 FPS (55%)

Fallout 3

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

GeForce 9800 GTX+		40 FPS
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		32 FPS
	Difference: 8 FPS (25%)

Fallout 3

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

GeForce 9800 GTX+		67 FPS
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		50 FPS
	Difference: 17 FPS (34%)

Far Cry 2

Settings:	Very High Qualty
AA:	none
AF:	none
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Intel Core i7-920,3 x 2 GB Ram,Windows Vista Ultimate 32 Bit SP1 (Source)

GeForce 9800 GTX+		46 FPS
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		33 FPS
	Difference: 13 FPS (39%)

Left4Dead

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

GeForce 9800 GTX+		46 FPS
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		31 FPS
	Difference: 15 FPS (48%)

Left4Dead

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

GeForce 9800 GTX+		57 FPS
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		38 FPS
	Difference: 19 FPS (50%)

Tom Clancy's Endwar

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

GeForce 9800 GTX+		19 FPS
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		15 FPS
	Difference: 4 FPS (27%)

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+		41 FPS
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		27 FPS
	Difference: 14 FPS (52%)

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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 111 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+		383 FPS
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		272 FPS
	Difference: 111 FPS (41%)

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		95 Watts
GeForce 9800 GTX+		145 Watts
	Difference: 50 Watts (53%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce 9800 GTX+ should in theory perform much faster than the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB in general. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX+		70400 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 12800 (22%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GTX+ should be quite a bit (more or less 127%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX+		47232 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		20800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 26432 (127%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce 9800 GTX+ is a better choice, but not by far. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX+		11808 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		10400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1408 (14%)

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 max amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the video card could possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.