GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB vs GeForce GTX 460 SE

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 460 SE, which comes with core speeds of 650 MHz on the GPU, and 850 MHz on the 1024 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 288 SPUs along with 48 TAUs and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		90 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 SE		150 Watts
	Difference: 60 Watts (67%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce GTX 460 SE should be a lot faster than the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		108800 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 51200 (89%)

Texel Rate

Both cards have exactly the same texel fill rate, so theoretically they should perform equally good at at AF. (explain)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 460 SE is superior to the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		20800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 10400 (100%)

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 maximum amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.