GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB vs GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB, which uses a 65/55 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 650 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM works at a frequency of 900 MHz on this specific card. It features 96 SPUs along with 48 TAUs and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		90 Watts
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		143 Watts
	Difference: 53 Watts (59%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB should be 10% faster than the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB in general, because of its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		63360 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 5760 (10%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB is much (approximately 27%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		31200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		24624 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 6576 (27%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB is a little bit (more or less 1%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB, and capable of handling higher resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		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 max amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.