GeForce 8800 GT 512MB vs GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB, which uses a 65 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 550 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM is set to run at a frequency of 800 MHz on this card. It features 96 SPUs as well as 48 TAUs and 12 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB		84 Watts
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		105 Watts
	Difference: 21 Watts (25%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB is 50% quicker than the GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB in general, because of its greater bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB		38400 MB/sec
	Difference: 19200 (50%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GT 512MB should be quite a bit (approximately 27%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB		26400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 7200 (27%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB is the winner, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		9600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB		6600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3000 (45%)

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 data (measured in MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card can possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.