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GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB vs GeForce GTS 250 1GB

Intro

The GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB has a clock speed of 650 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 900 MHz. It also uses a 256-bit bus, and uses a 65/55 nm design. It is made up of 96 SPUs, 48 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTS 250 1GB, which comes with a clock speed of 738 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 1100 MHz. It also features a 256-bit bus, and makes use of a 65/55 nm design. It is comprised of 128 SPUs, 64 Texture Address Units, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB 90 Watts
GeForce GTS 250 1GB 145 Watts
Difference: 55 Watts (61%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTS 250 1GB will be 22% quicker than the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB overall, because of its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB 70400 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB 57600 MB/sec
Difference: 12800 (22%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 1GB is quite a bit (approximately 51%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB 47232 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB 31200 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 16032 (51%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTS 250 1GB is a better choice, though not by far. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB 11808 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB 10400 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 1408 (14%)

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

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GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

GeForce GTS 250 1GB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

Specifications

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Model GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB GeForce GTS 250 1GB
Manufacturer nVidia nVidia
Year October 2008 March 3, 2009
Code Name G94a/b G92a/b
Memory 512 MB 1024 MB
Core Speed 650 MHz 738 MHz
Memory Speed 1800 MHz 2200 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 90 watts 145 watts
Bandwidth 57600 MB/sec 70400 MB/sec
Texel Rate 31200 Mtexels/sec 47232 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 10400 Mpixels/sec 11808 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 96 128
Texture Mapping Units 48 64
Render Output Units 16 16
Bus Type GDDR3 GDDR3
Bus Width 256-bit 256-bit
Fab Process 65/55 nm 65/55 nm
Transistors 505 million 754 million
Bus PCIe x16 2.0 PCIe x16 2.0
DirectX Version DirectX 10 DirectX 10
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 3.1

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total amount of 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 in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as 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 of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.

Display Prices

Hide Prices

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

GeForce GTS 250 1GB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

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