GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB vs GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB, which comes with a clock frequency of 650 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 900 MHz. It also makes use of a 256-bit bus, and uses a 65/55 nm design. It is comprised of 96 SPUs, 48 Texture Address Units, and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		84 Watts
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		90 Watts
	Difference: 6 Watts (7%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB is 50% faster than the GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB overall, because of its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		57600 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		38400 MB/sec
	Difference: 19200 (50%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB is a small bit (about 18%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		31200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		26400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 4800 (18%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB should be quite a bit (approximately 58%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB, and should be able to handle higher resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		6600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3800 (58%)

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 max amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, it should 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 anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card could 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 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 fill rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.