GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 vs GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB, which uses a 65/55 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 650 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM is set to run at a speed of 900 MHz on this particular card. It features 96 SPUs as well as 48 TAUs and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		50 Watts
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		90 Watts
	Difference: 40 Watts (80%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB should theoretically be a lot superior to the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 in general. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		57600 MB/sec
GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		16000 MB/sec
	Difference: 41600 (260%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB should be much (approximately 255%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		31200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		8800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 22400 (255%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB is a better choice, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 6000 (136%)

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 (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, 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 texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card 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 in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.