GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB vs GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB, which has core speeds of 650 MHz on the GPU, and 900 MHz on the 512 MB of GDDR3 memory. It features 96 SPUs along with 48 Texture Address Units and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		84 Watts
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		90 Watts
	Difference: 6 Watts (7%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB should perform much faster than the GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB in general. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		57600 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		38400 MB/sec
	Difference: 19200 (50%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB is a small bit (more or less 18%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		31200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		26400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 4800 (18%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB will be much (more or less 58%) better at anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB, and also should be able to handle higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		6600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3800 (58%)

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 information (counted in MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.