GeForce 9600 GT 1GB vs GeForce GTX 480

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 480, which features a clock speed of 700 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 924 MHz. It also makes use of a 384-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It features 480 SPUs, 60 TAUs, and 48 Raster Operation Units.

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

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 480 should theoretically be much better than the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB overall. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 480 should be quite a bit (about 102%) better 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 using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 480 is a better choice, by far. (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 largest amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of 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 processed per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the video card can possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.