GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB vs GeForce GTX 570

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 570, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 732 MHz. The GDDR5 memory is set to run at a frequency of 950 MHz on this model. It features 480 SPUs along with 60 TAUs and 40 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		90 Watts
GeForce GTX 570		219 Watts
	Difference: 129 Watts (143%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 570 should be 164% faster than the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB in general, due to its greater bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 570		152000 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 94400 (164%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 570 should be a lot (about 41%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 570		43920 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		31200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 12720 (41%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 570 is superior to the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 570		29280 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 18880 (182%)

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 (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If 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 high resolutions.

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

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