GeForce 9600 GT 512MB vs GeForce GTX 860M

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 860M, which makes use of a 28 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 797 MHz. The GDDR5 memory works at a frequency of 1000 MHz on this specific model. It features 1152 SPUs as well as 96 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 860M		45 Watts
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		95 Watts
	Difference: 50 Watts (111%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 860M should in theory be a small bit better than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 860M		64000 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 6400 (11%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 860M is much (about 268%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 860M		76512 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		20800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 55712 (268%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 860M is a better choice, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 860M		12752 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2352 (23%)

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 max amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.