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

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB, which comes with core speeds of 650 MHz on the GPU, and 900 MHz on the 512 MB of GDDR3 RAM. It features 64 SPUs as well as 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 9600 GT 512MB		31 FPS
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		30 FPS
	Difference: 1 FPS (3%)

Fallout 3

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

GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		32 FPS
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		14 FPS
	Difference: 18 FPS (129%)

Fallout 3

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

GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		50 FPS
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		38 FPS
	Difference: 12 FPS (32%)

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 9600 GT 512MB		33 FPS
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		31 FPS
	Difference: 2 FPS (6%)

Left4Dead

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

GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		32 FPS
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		31 FPS
	Difference: 1 FPS (3%)

Left4Dead

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

GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		38 FPS
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		37 FPS
	Difference: 1 FPS (3%)

Tom Clancy's Endwar

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

GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		15 FPS
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		14 FPS
	Difference: 1 FPS (7%)

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 (G80) 640MB		30 FPS
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		26 FPS
	Difference: 4 FPS (15%)

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GeForce 9600 GT 512MB wins

(Based entirely on the benchmarks listed above)

When combining all game benchmark scores on this page together, the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB wins overall, by 40 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 9600 GT 512MB		305 FPS
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		265 FPS
	Difference: 40 FPS (15%)

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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 will be 10% quicker than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB in general, because of its higher data rate. (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 should be a bit (more or less 18%) faster with regards to 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 running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB is the winner, but it probably won't make a huge difference. (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 largest amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. 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 card's memory bandwidth, 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video card will be at 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 could possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output 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 max fill rate.