GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB vs GeForce GTX 460 2GB

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 460 2GB, which features a core clock speed of 675 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 900 MHz. It also features a 256-bit bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It is comprised of 336 SPUs, 56 Texture Address Units, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		84 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 2GB		160 Watts
	Difference: 76 Watts (90%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 460 2GB should in theory perform a lot faster than the GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		115200 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		38400 MB/sec
	Difference: 76800 (200%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 2GB is a lot (about 43%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		37800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		26400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 11400 (43%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 2GB should be quite a bit (more or less 227%) more effective at AA than the GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB, and should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		21600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		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 maximum amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock 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 per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card could possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.