GeForce 9600 GT 512MB vs GeForce 9800 GTX

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce 9800 GTX, which makes use of a 65 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 675 MHz. The GDDR3 memory is set to run at a frequency of 1100 MHz on this model. It features 128 SPUs along with 64 Texture Address Units and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		95 Watts
GeForce 9800 GTX		140 Watts
	Difference: 45 Watts (47%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce 9800 GTX should in theory be a lot faster than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB overall. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX		70400 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 12800 (22%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GTX is a lot (about 108%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX		43200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		20800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 22400 (108%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GTX is just a bit (about 4%) faster with regards to AA than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB, and will be able to handle higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX		10800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		10400 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

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the largest amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If 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, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.