GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB vs GeForce RTX 3060

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce RTX 3060, which has a core clock speed of 1320 MHz and a GDDR6 memory speed of 1875 MHz. It also features a 192-bit bus, and uses a 8 nm design. It features 3584 SPUs, 112 TAUs, and 48 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		84 Watts
GeForce RTX 3060		170 Watts
	Difference: 86 Watts (102%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce RTX 3060 is 860% faster than the GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB overall, due to its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce RTX 3060		368640 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		38400 MB/sec
	Difference: 330240 (860%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce RTX 3060 should be quite a bit (about 460%) better at AF than the GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB. (explain)

GeForce RTX 3060		147840 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		26400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 121440 (460%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce RTX 3060 is the winner, by far. (explain)

GeForce RTX 3060		63360 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		6600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 56760 (860%)

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 max amount of information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the clock 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 fill rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.