GeForce 9600 GT 512MB vs GeForce GTX 480

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 480, which comes with clock speeds of 700 MHz on the GPU, and 924 MHz on the 1536 MB of GDDR5 RAM. It features 480 SPUs as well as 60 Texture Address Units and 48 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		95 Watts
GeForce GTX 480		250 Watts
	Difference: 155 Watts (163%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 480 should be 208% quicker than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB overall, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		177408 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 119808 (208%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 480 should be much (about 102%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		42000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		20800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 21200 (102%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 480 should be much (about 223%) faster with regards to anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB, and also will be able to handle higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		33600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 23200 (223%)

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 megabytes per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster 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 are processed in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher 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 that the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.