GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB vs GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 460 (OEM), which features a core clock speed of 650 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 850 MHz. It also makes use of a 256-bit bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It is comprised of 336 SPUs, 56 Texture Address Units, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		84 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)		150 Watts
	Difference: 66 Watts (79%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 460 (OEM) should be 183% faster than the GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB overall, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)		108800 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		38400 MB/sec
	Difference: 70400 (183%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 (OEM) should be a lot (about 38%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)		36400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		26400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 10000 (38%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 460 (OEM) is a better choice, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)		20800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		6600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 14200 (215%)

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 (counted in MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, 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 texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.