GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3 vs GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB, which makes use of a 65 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 550 MHz. The GDDR3 memory works at a speed of 800 MHz on this specific card. It features 96 SPUs along with 48 TAUs and 12 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		50 Watts
GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		84 Watts
	Difference: 34 Watts (68%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB should theoretically be quite a bit better than the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3 overall. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		38400 MB/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		25600 MB/sec
	Difference: 12800 (50%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB should be quite a bit (more or less 200%) better at AF than the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		26400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		8800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 17600 (200%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB is superior to the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		6600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2200 (50%)

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 maximum amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This 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 in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card could possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.