GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB vs GeForce 9600 GT 512MB

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB, which has a clock speed of 650 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 900 MHz. It also uses a 256-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 65/55 nm design. It features 64 SPUs, 32 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		95 Watts
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		143 Watts
	Difference: 48 Watts (51%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB should be 10% faster than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB overall, because of its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		63360 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 5760 (10%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB is a small bit (approximately 18%) better at AF than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		24624 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		20800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 3824 (18%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB is the winner, but not by far. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		10260 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 140 (1%)

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 maximum amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the better 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 texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. 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 also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.