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

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 460 (OEM), which comes with GPU clock speed of 650 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR5 RAM running at 850 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is comprised of 336 SPUs, 56 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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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

In theory, the GeForce GTX 460 (OEM) should perform much faster than the GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB in general. (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) is quite a bit (about 38%) more effective at AF 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

The GeForce GTX 460 (OEM) is a lot (more or less 215%) better at AA than the GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB, and also will be capable of handling higher resolutions more effectively. (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: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends 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.