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GeForce 9600 GT 512MB vs Radeon HD 4850 1GB

Intro

The GeForce 9600 GT 512MB features clock speeds of 650 MHz on the GPU, and 900 MHz on the 512 MB of GDDR3 RAM. It features 64 SPUs along with 32 TAUs and 16 ROPs.

Compare that to the Radeon HD 4850 1GB, which comes with core speeds of 625 MHz on the GPU, and 993 MHz on the 1024 MB of GDDR4 RAM. It features 800(160x5) SPUs along with 40 Texture Address Units and 16 ROPs.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GT 512MB 95 Watts
Radeon HD 4850 1GB 110 Watts
Difference: 15 Watts (16%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon HD 4850 1GB should be 10% faster than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB overall, due to its higher bandwidth. (explain)

Radeon HD 4850 1GB 63552 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB 57600 MB/sec
Difference: 5952 (10%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 4850 1GB will be a bit (more or less 20%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB. (explain)

Radeon HD 4850 1GB 25000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB 20800 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 4200 (20%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB is the winner, but only just. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GT 512MB 10400 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4850 1GB 10000 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 400 (4%)

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

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GeForce 9600 GT 512MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 4850 1GB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

Specifications

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Model GeForce 9600 GT 512MB Radeon HD 4850 1GB
Manufacturer nVidia AMD
Year Feb 2008 Jun 25, 2008
Code Name G94a/b RV770 PRO
Memory 512 MB 1024 MB
Core Speed 650 MHz 625 MHz
Memory Speed 1800 MHz 1986 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 95 watts 110 watts
Bandwidth 57600 MB/sec 63552 MB/sec
Texel Rate 20800 Mtexels/sec 25000 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 10400 Mpixels/sec 10000 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 64 800(160x5)
Texture Mapping Units 32 40
Render Output Units 16 16
Bus Type GDDR3 GDDR4
Bus Width 256-bit 256-bit
Fab Process 65/55 nm 55 nm
Transistors 505 million 956 million
Bus PCIe x16 2.0 PCIe 2.0 x16
DirectX Version DirectX 10 DirectX 10.1
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 3.0

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the max amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR memory, it should 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 anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock 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 maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.

Display Prices

Hide Prices

GeForce 9600 GT 512MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 4850 1GB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

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