GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB vs GeForce 9600 GT 1GB

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB, which features GPU clock speed of 650 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR3 RAM running at 900 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is made up of 64 Stream Processors, 32 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

F.E.A.R. 2

Settings:	Maximum Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Unknown (Source)

GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		31 FPS
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		28 FPS
	Difference: 3 FPS (11%)

Fallout 3

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

GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		50 FPS
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		21 FPS
	Difference: 29 FPS (138%)

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 1GB		33 FPS
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		23 FPS
	Difference: 10 FPS (43%)

Left4Dead

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

GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		38 FPS
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		35 FPS
	Difference: 3 FPS (9%)

Tom Clancy's Endwar

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

GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		15 FPS
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		8 FPS
	Difference: 7 FPS (88%)

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GeForce 9600 GT 1GB wins

(Based entirely on the benchmarks listed above)

When combining all game benchmark scores on this page together, the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB wins overall, by 55 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 1GB		205 FPS
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		150 FPS
	Difference: 55 FPS (37%)

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		95 Watts
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		143 Watts
	Difference: 48 Watts (51%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB is 10% faster than the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB in general, because of its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		63360 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 5760 (10%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB should be a small bit (approximately 18%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		24624 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		20800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 3824 (18%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GT 1GB will be a bit (approximately 1%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB, and also will be capable of handling higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		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: Bandwidth is the max amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total 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 processed per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.