GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB vs GeForce GTX 460 1GB

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 460 1GB, which features a clock frequency of 675 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 900 MHz. It also features a 256-bit bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It is made up of 336 SPUs, 56 Texture Address Units, and 32 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 1GB		160 Watts
	Difference: 76 Watts (90%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 460 1GB should be 200% faster than the GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB overall, because of its greater bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		115200 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		38400 MB/sec
	Difference: 76800 (200%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 1GB should be quite a bit (approximately 43%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		37800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		26400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 11400 (43%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 1GB is a lot (approximately 227%) better at anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB, and also should be able to handle higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		21600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		6600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 15000 (227%)

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 max amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better 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 can be applied in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at 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 can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the card's 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 is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.