GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512 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 is made up of 192 SPUs, 32 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512		84 Watts
GeForce GTS 450		106 Watts
	Difference: 22 Watts (26%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTS 450 should be quite a bit faster than the GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450		57728 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512		16000 MB/sec
	Difference: 41728 (261%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512 is a small bit (approximately 5%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GTS 450. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512		26400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 450		25056 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 1344 (5%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTS 450 should be quite a bit (approximately 90%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512, and will be capable of handling higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450		12528 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512		6600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 5928 (90%)

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 information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out 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 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 texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card can possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.