GeForce 8800 GTX vs GeForce 9600 GT 512MB

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB, which makes use of a 65/55 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 650 MHz. The GDDR3 memory is set to run at a frequency of 900 MHz on this specific model. It features 64 SPUs along with 32 TAUs and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		95 Watts
GeForce 8800 GTX		155 Watts
	Difference: 60 Watts (63%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 8800 GTX should be a lot faster than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB overall. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTX		86400 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 28800 (50%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GTX should be quite a bit (approximately 77%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTX		36800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		20800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 16000 (77%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce 8800 GTX is the winner, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTX		13800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3400 (33%)

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

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics 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 number of pixels the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.