GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB vs GeForce GTX 460

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 460, which has a clock speed of 675 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 900 MHz. It also makes use of a 192-bit bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It features 336 SPUs, 56 TAUs, and 24 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		84 Watts
GeForce GTX 460		150 Watts
	Difference: 66 Watts (79%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 460 should in theory be a lot faster than the GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460		86400 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		38400 MB/sec
	Difference: 48000 (125%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 should be a lot (about 43%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460		37800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		26400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 11400 (43%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 will be quite a bit (approximately 145%) faster with regards to FSAA than the GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB, and also should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460		16200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		6600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 9600 (145%)

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 (in units of MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are applied per 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 handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the video card could possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.