GeForce 9600 GT 1GB vs GeForce GTX 470

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 470, which has a core clock speed of 607 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 837 MHz. It also features a 320-bit memory bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It features 448 SPUs, 56 Texture Address Units, and 40 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		95 Watts
GeForce GTX 470		215 Watts
	Difference: 120 Watts (126%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 470, in theory, should perform much faster than the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		133920 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 76320 (133%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 470 should be a lot (approximately 63%) better at AF than the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		33992 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		20800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 13192 (63%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 470 is the winner, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		24280 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		10400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 13880 (133%)

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 (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the card will be at 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 graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.