GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB vs GeForce GT 320

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GT 320, which comes with a clock speed of 540 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 790 MHz. It also features a 128-bit bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It is made up of 72 SPUs, 24 TAUs, and 8 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 320		43 Watts
GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		84 Watts
	Difference: 41 Watts (95%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB should theoretically be a lot faster than the GeForce GT 320 in general. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		38400 MB/sec
GeForce GT 320		25280 MB/sec
	Difference: 13120 (52%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB will be much (approximately 104%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GT 320. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		26400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 320		12960 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 13440 (104%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB is a lot (approximately 53%) more effective at FSAA than the GeForce GT 320, and also will be able to handle higher resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		6600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 320		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2280 (53%)

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 largest amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 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 texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

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