GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3 vs GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB, which makes use of a 65 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 550 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM runs at a frequency of 800 MHz on this model. It features 96 SPUs as well as 48 Texture Address Units and 12 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3		50 Watts
GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB		84 Watts
	Difference: 34 Watts (68%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB will be 50% quicker than the GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3 in general, because of its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB		38400 MB/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3		25600 MB/sec
	Difference: 12800 (50%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB should be quite a bit (approximately 200%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB		26400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3		8800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 17600 (200%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB will be quite a bit (about 50%) more effective at AA than the GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3, and should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB		6600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2200 (50%)

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 data (in units of MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. 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 reach the maximum fill rate.