GeForce 9600 GT 1GB vs GeForce GTX 960M

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 960M, which comes with core speeds of 1096 MHz on the GPU, and 1000 MHz on the 2048 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 640 SPUs as well as 40 TAUs and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 960M		65 Watts
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		95 Watts
	Difference: 30 Watts (46%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 960M should perform just a bit faster than the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960M		64000 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 6400 (11%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 960M should be quite a bit (approximately 111%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960M		43840 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		20800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 23040 (111%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 960M is superior to the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960M		17536 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		10400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 7136 (69%)

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 information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better 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 are applied per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock 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 processed per second.

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