GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB vs GeForce GTX 480

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 480, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 700 MHz. The GDDR5 memory runs at a frequency of 924 MHz on this specific model. 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 GSO 512MB		90 Watts
GeForce GTX 480		250 Watts
	Difference: 160 Watts (178%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 480 should perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB overall. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 480 is much (more or less 35%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		42000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		31200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 10800 (35%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 480 is superior to the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		33600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 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 data (counted in MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the clock 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 fill rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.