GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB vs Radeon R7 M260X

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon R7 M260X, which comes with a core clock speed of 825 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1000 MHz. It also features a 128-bit bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It features 384 SPUs, 24 Texture Address Units, and 8 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the Radeon R7 M260X should perform a little bit faster than the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB overall. (explain)

Radeon R7 M260X		64000 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 6400 (11%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB will be quite a bit (more or less 58%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the Radeon R7 M260X. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		31200 Mtexels/sec
Radeon R7 M260X		19800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 11400 (58%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB will be much (about 58%) better at full screen anti-aliasing than the Radeon R7 M260X, and able to handle higher resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
Radeon R7 M260X		6600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3800 (58%)

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 interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This number 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 card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.