GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB vs GeForce GTX 1060 3GB

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, which has a core clock frequency of 1506 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 2000 MHz. It also features a 192-bit memory bus, and uses a 16 nm design. It is made up of 1152 SPUs, 72 TAUs, and 48 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		90 Watts
GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		120 Watts
	Difference: 30 Watts (33%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 1060 3GB is 241% quicker than the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB overall, due to its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		196608 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 139008 (241%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 1060 3GB is much (more or less 248%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		108432 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		31200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 77232 (248%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 1060 3GB should be quite a bit (about 595%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB, and able to handle higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		72288 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 61888 (595%)

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 largest amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.