GeForce 8800 GTS (G92) vs GeForce 9600 GT 512MB

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB, which comes with a core clock frequency of 650 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 900 MHz. It also makes use of a 256-bit bus, and uses a 65/55 nm design. It is comprised of 64 SPUs, 32 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 8800 GTS (G92)		42 FPS
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		31 FPS
	Difference: 11 FPS (35%)

Fallout 3

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

GeForce 8800 GTS (G92)		36 FPS
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		32 FPS
	Difference: 4 FPS (13%)

Fallout 3

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

GeForce 8800 GTS (G92)		59 FPS
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		50 FPS
	Difference: 9 FPS (18%)

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 8800 GTS (G92)		45 FPS
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		33 FPS
	Difference: 12 FPS (36%)

Left4Dead

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

GeForce 8800 GTS (G92)		40 FPS
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		31 FPS
	Difference: 9 FPS (29%)

Left4Dead

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

GeForce 8800 GTS (G92)		51 FPS
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		37 FPS
	Difference: 14 FPS (38%)

Tom Clancy's Endwar

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

GeForce 8800 GTS (G92)		17 FPS
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		15 FPS
	Difference: 2 FPS (13%)

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 8800 GTS (G92)		35 FPS
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		26 FPS
	Difference: 9 FPS (35%)

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GeForce 8800 GTS (G92) wins

(Based entirely on the benchmarks listed above)

When combining all game benchmark scores on this page together, the GeForce 8800 GTS (G92) wins overall, by 70 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 8800 GTS (G92)		325 FPS
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		255 FPS
	Difference: 70 FPS (27%)

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		95 Watts
GeForce 8800 GTS (G92)		135 Watts
	Difference: 40 Watts (42%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce 8800 GTS (G92) will be 8% faster than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB in general, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTS (G92)		62080 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 4480 (8%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GTS (G92) should be much (about 100%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTS (G92)		41600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		20800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 20800 (100%)

Pixel Rate

Both cards have exactly the same pixel rate, so theoretically they should perform equally good at at FSAA, and be capable of handling the same screen resolutions. (explain)

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 information (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This number 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 processed per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card could possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.