GeForce 9600 GT 1GB vs GeForce GTX 460 SE

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 460 SE, which comes with a core clock frequency of 650 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 850 MHz. It also makes use of a 256-bit bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It is made up of 288 SPUs, 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

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 460 SE should theoretically be quite a bit better than the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB overall. (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 will be much (about 50%) faster with regards to AF 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 using lots of anti-aliasing 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 largest amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the card will be at 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 that the graphics chip can possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends 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 maximum fill rate.