GeForce 9600 GT 1GB vs GeForce GTX 460

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 460, which has core speeds of 675 MHz on the GPU, and 900 MHz on the 768 MB of GDDR5 RAM. It features 336 SPUs along with 56 TAUs and 24 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

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

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 460 is 50% quicker than the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB in general, because of its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460		86400 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 28800 (50%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 is much (more or less 82%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460		37800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		20800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 17000 (82%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 460 is superior to the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460		16200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		10400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 5800 (56%)

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 MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card could possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core 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 is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.