GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB vs GeForce GTX 870M

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 870M, which has a GPU core clock speed of 941 MHz, and 3072 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 1000 MHz through a 192-bit bus. It also is comprised of 1344 SPUs, 112 Texture Address Units, and 24 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		90 Watts
GeForce GTX 870M		110 Watts
	Difference: 20 Watts (22%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 870M should in theory be a lot better than the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 870M		96000 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 38400 (67%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 870M is much (about 238%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 870M		105392 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		31200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 74192 (238%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 870M is superior to the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 870M		22584 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 12184 (117%)

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 (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster 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 can be processed in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied per second.

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