GeForce 9600 GT 1GB vs GeForce GTX 460

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 460, which comes with core clock speeds of 675 MHz on the GPU, and 900 MHz on the 768 MB of GDDR5 memory. 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

The GeForce GTX 460, in theory, should perform much faster than the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB in general. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 will be a lot (about 82%) faster with regards to 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 high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 460 is superior to the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB, and very much so. (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 megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the 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 can be applied in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total 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 a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.