GeForce 9600 GT 512MB vs GeForce GTS 450

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTS 450, which features GPU clock speed of 783 MHz, and 512 MB of GDDR5 RAM running at 902 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also features 192 Stream Processors, 32 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		95 Watts
GeForce GTS 450		106 Watts
	Difference: 11 Watts (12%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce GTS 450 should be a little bit faster than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450		57728 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 128 (0%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 450 is a little bit (more or less 20%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450		25056 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		20800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 4256 (20%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTS 450 will be a little bit (more or less 20%) faster with regards to FSAA than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB, and should be able to handle higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450		12528 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2128 (20%)

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 max amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed per second.

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