GeForce 9600 GT 1GB vs GeForce GTX 480

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 480, which comes with a core clock speed of 700 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 924 MHz. It also makes use of a 384-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It is comprised of 480 SPUs, 60 TAUs, and 48 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		95 Watts
GeForce GTX 480		250 Watts
	Difference: 155 Watts (163%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 480 will be 208% quicker than the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB in general, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		177408 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 119808 (208%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 480 is much (more or less 102%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		42000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		20800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 21200 (102%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 480 is superior to the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		33600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		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: Memory bandwidth is the max amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.