GeForce 9600 GT 1GB vs GeForce GTX 460 SE

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 460 SE, which has a GPU core clock speed of 650 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR5 RAM running at 850 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also features 288 Stream Processors, 48 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		95 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 SE		150 Watts
	Difference: 55 Watts (58%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 460 SE should in theory perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		108800 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 51200 (89%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 SE should be quite a bit (more or less 50%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		31200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		20800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 10400 (50%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 460 SE is a better choice, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		20800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		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 max amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher 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 are processed per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core clock 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 processed in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure 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 is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.