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GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB vs GeForce 9600 GT 512MB

Intro

The GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB features a GPU clock speed of 650 MHz, and the 512 MB of GDDR3 memory is set to run at 900 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also features 96 Stream Processors, 48 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Compare all that to the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB, which comes with a core clock frequency of 650 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 900 MHz. It also uses a 256-bit bus, and uses a 65/55 nm design. It is made up of 64 SPUs, 32 Texture Address Units, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB 90 Watts
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB 95 Watts
Difference: 5 Watts (6%)

Memory Bandwidth

Both cards have the exact same bandwidth, so theoretically they should have the same performance. (explain)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB is quite a bit (about 50%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB 31200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB 20800 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 10400 (50%)

Pixel Rate

Both cards have the exact same pixel fill rate, so in theory they should perform equally good at at AA, and be able to handle the same screen resolutions. (explain)

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 GSO 512MB

Amazon.com

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GeForce 9600 GT 512MB

Amazon.com

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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 GSO 512MB GeForce 9600 GT 512MB
Manufacturer nVidia nVidia
Year October 2008 Feb 2008
Code Name G94a/b G94a/b
Memory 512 MB 512 MB
Core Speed 650 MHz 650 MHz
Memory Speed 1800 MHz 1800 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 90 watts 95 watts
Bandwidth 57600 MB/sec 57600 MB/sec
Texel Rate 31200 Mtexels/sec 20800 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 10400 Mpixels/sec 10400 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 96 64
Texture Mapping Units 48 32
Render Output Units 16 16
Bus Type GDDR3 GDDR3
Bus Width 256-bit 256-bit
Fab Process 65/55 nm 65/55 nm
Transistors 505 million 505 million
Bus PCIe x16 2.0 PCIe x16 2.0
DirectX Version DirectX 10 DirectX 10
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 3.0

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the largest amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the 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 can be processed in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card can possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.

Display Prices

Hide Prices

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

GeForce 9600 GT 512MB

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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