GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB vs GeForce GTX 970M

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 970M, which features GPU core speed of 924 MHz, and 3072 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 1000 MHz through a 192-bit bus. It also is made up of 1280 SPUs, 80 TAUs, and 48 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 970M		75 Watts
GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB		84 Watts
	Difference: 9 Watts (12%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 970M should theoretically be a lot better than the GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970M		96000 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB		38400 MB/sec
	Difference: 57600 (150%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 970M is quite a bit (approximately 180%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970M		73920 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB		26400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 47520 (180%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 970M should be much (more or less 572%) better at FSAA than the GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB, and capable of handling higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970M		44352 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB		6600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 37752 (572%)

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 across the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the video 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 maximum number of pixels that the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines 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 fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.