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GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB vs GeForce 9800 GX2

Intro

The GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB has core speeds of 650 MHz on the GPU, and 900 MHz on the 512 MB of GDDR3 memory. It features 96 SPUs as well as 48 TAUs and 16 ROPs.

Compare that to the GeForce 9800 GX2, which uses a 65 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 600 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM runs at a frequency of 1000 MHz on this particular model. It features 128 SPUs as well as 64 TAUs and 16 ROPs.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB 90 Watts
GeForce 9800 GX2 197 Watts
Difference: 107 Watts (119%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce 9800 GX2 should be much faster than the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB overall. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2 128000 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB 57600 MB/sec
Difference: 70400 (122%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GX2 should be much (more or less 146%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2 76800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB 31200 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 45600 (146%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GX2 should be a lot (approximately 85%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB, and should be capable of handling higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2 19200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB 10400 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 8800 (85%)

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.

One or more cards in this comparison are multi-core. This means that their bandwidth, texel and pixel rates are theoretically doubled - this does not mean the card will actually perform twice as fast, but only that it should in theory be able to. Actual game benchmarks will give a more accurate idea of what it's capable of.

Price Comparison

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GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

GeForce 9800 GX2

Amazon.com

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Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

Specifications

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Model GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB GeForce 9800 GX2
Manufacturer nVidia nVidia
Year October 2008 Mar 2008
Code Name G94a/b G92
Memory 512 MB 512 MB (x2)
Core Speed 650 MHz 600 MHz (x2)
Memory Speed 1800 MHz 2000 MHz (x2)
Power (Max TDP) 90 watts 197 watts
Bandwidth 57600 MB/sec 128000 MB/sec
Texel Rate 31200 Mtexels/sec 76800 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 10400 Mpixels/sec 19200 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 96 128 (x2)
Texture Mapping Units 48 64 (x2)
Render Output Units 16 16 (x2)
Bus Type GDDR3 GDDR3
Bus Width 256-bit 256-bit (x2)
Fab Process 65/55 nm 65 nm
Transistors 505 million 754 million
Bus PCIe x16 2.0 PCIe x16 2.0
DirectX Version DirectX 10 DirectX 10
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 3.0

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the 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 the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.

Display Prices

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GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

GeForce 9800 GX2

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

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