GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB vs GeForce GT 320

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GT 320, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 540 MHz. The GDDR3 memory is set to run at a frequency of 790 MHz on this specific model. It features 72 SPUs as well as 24 Texture Address Units and 8 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 320		43 Watts
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		90 Watts
	Difference: 47 Watts (109%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB should be quite a bit faster than the GeForce GT 320 in general. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		57600 MB/sec
GeForce GT 320		25280 MB/sec
	Difference: 32320 (128%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB will be much (more or less 141%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GT 320. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		31200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 320		12960 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 18240 (141%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB is a better choice, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 320		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 6080 (141%)

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 information (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the better 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 can be applied per second. This number 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 per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.