GeForce 8800 GTX vs GeForce 9600 GT 1GB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB, which has clock speeds of 650 MHz on the GPU, and 900 MHz on the 1024 MB of GDDR3 memory. It features 64 SPUs as well as 32 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		95 Watts
GeForce 8800 GTX		155 Watts
	Difference: 60 Watts (63%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce 8800 GTX should be much faster than the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB overall. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTX		86400 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 28800 (50%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GTX is much (about 77%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTX		36800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		20800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 16000 (77%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GTX will be a lot (approximately 33%) more effective at AA than the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB, and also will be able to handle higher resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTX		13800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		10400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3400 (33%)

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 (in units of MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock 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 one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill 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 maximum fill rate.