GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB vs GeForce GTX 960M

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 960M, which comes with a clock speed of 1096 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1000 MHz. It also features a 128-bit bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It is comprised of 640 SPUs, 40 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 960M		65 Watts
GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		84 Watts
	Difference: 19 Watts (29%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 960M, in theory, should be a lot faster than the GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960M		64000 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		38400 MB/sec
	Difference: 25600 (67%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 960M will be quite a bit (more or less 66%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960M		43840 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		26400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 17440 (66%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 960M is superior to the GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960M		17536 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		6600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 10936 (166%)

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: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the 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 number of pixels the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core speed of the card. 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 rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.