GeForce 9600 GT 1GB vs GeForce 9800 GTX

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce 9800 GTX, which has a core clock frequency of 675 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 1100 MHz. It also features a 256-bit bus, and uses a 65 nm design. It is comprised of 128 SPUs, 64 Texture Address Units, and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		95 Watts
GeForce 9800 GTX		140 Watts
	Difference: 45 Watts (47%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 9800 GTX should be much faster than the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB in general. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX		70400 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 12800 (22%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GTX is a lot (about 108%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX		43200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		20800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 22400 (108%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GTX is a bit (approximately 4%) more effective at FSAA than the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB, and also will be able to handle higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX		10800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		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: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported 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 type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the 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 the video card could possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.