GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB vs GeForce GTX 570

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 570, which uses a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 732 MHz. The GDDR5 memory works at a speed of 950 MHz on this card. It features 480 SPUs along with 60 TAUs and 40 Rasterization Operator Units.

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 will be 164% quicker than the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB overall, due to its greater data rate. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 570 is much (more or less 41%) better at AF 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

The GeForce GTX 570 is quite a bit (about 182%) better at anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB, and also will be able to handle higher resolutions more effectively. (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 maximum amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.