Compare any two graphics cards:

GeForce 9600 GT 1GB vs GeForce GTS 450

Intro

The GeForce 9600 GT 1GB features a GPU clock speed of 650 MHz, and the 1024 MB of GDDR3 RAM is set to run at 900 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also features 64 SPUs, 32 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTS 450, which uses a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 783 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM is set to run at a speed of 902 MHz on this specific model. It features 192 SPUs along with 32 Texture Address Units and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		95 Watts
GeForce GTS 450		106 Watts
	Difference: 11 Watts (12%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce GTS 450 should be a small bit faster than the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450		57728 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 128 (0%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 450 will be a bit (more or less 20%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450		25056 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		20800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 4256 (20%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTS 450 is the winner, though not by far. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450		12528 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		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

Display Prices

Hide Prices

GeForce 9600 GT 1GB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

GeForce GTS 450

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.

Specifications

Display Specifications

Hide Specifications

Model	GeForce 9600 GT 1GB	GeForce GTS 450
Manufacturer	nVidia	nVidia
Year	Feb 2008	September 2010
Code Name	G94a/b	GF106
Memory	1024 MB	512 MB
Core Speed	650 MHz	783 MHz
Memory Speed	1800 MHz	3608 MHz
Power (Max TDP)	95 watts	106 watts
Bandwidth	57600 MB/sec	57728 MB/sec
Texel Rate	20800 Mtexels/sec	25056 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate	10400 Mpixels/sec	12528 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders	64	192
Texture Mapping Units	32	32
Render Output Units	16	16
Bus Type	GDDR3	GDDR5
Bus Width	256-bit	128-bit
Fab Process	65/55 nm	40 nm
Transistors	505 million	1170 million
Bus	PCIe x16 2.0	PCIe x16
DirectX Version	DirectX 10	DirectX 11
OpenGL Version	OpenGL 3.0	OpenGL 4.1

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the max amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the graphics 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 amount 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 colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.

Display Prices

Hide Prices