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GeForce 9600 GT 1GB vs Radeon HD 3870 X2 512MB

Intro

The GeForce 9600 GT 1GB has a GPU core speed of 650 MHz, and the 1024 MB of GDDR3 RAM runs at 900 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is comprised of 64 Stream Processors, 32 Texture Address Units, and 16 ROPs.

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 3870 X2 512MB, which makes use of a 55 nm design. AMD has set the core frequency at 825 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM runs at a frequency of 900 MHz on this particular model. It features 320(64x5) SPUs along with 16 Texture Address Units and 16 ROPs.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

The Radeon HD 3870 X2 512MB, in theory, should perform much faster than the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 3870 X2 512MB 115200 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB 57600 MB/sec
Difference: 57600 (100%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 3870 X2 512MB should be a lot (about 27%) better at AF than the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB. (explain)

Radeon HD 3870 X2 512MB 26400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB 20800 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 5600 (27%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 3870 X2 512MB should be quite a bit (about 154%) more effective at FSAA than the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB, and also able to handle higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

Radeon HD 3870 X2 512MB 26400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB 10400 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 16000 (154%)

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.

One or more cards in this comparison are multi-core. This means that their bandwidth, texel and pixel rates are theoretically doubled - this does not mean the card will actually perform twice as fast, but only that it should in theory be able to. Actual game benchmarks will give a more accurate idea of what it's capable of.

Price Comparison

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GeForce 9600 GT 1GB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 3870 X2 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.

Specifications

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Model GeForce 9600 GT 1GB Radeon HD 3870 X2 512MB
Manufacturer nVidia AMD
Year Feb 2008 Jan 28, 2008
Code Name G94a/b R680
Memory 1024 MB 512 MB (x2)
Core Speed 650 MHz 825 MHz (x2)
Memory Speed 1800 MHz 1800 MHz (x2)
Power (Max TDP) 95 watts (Unknown) watts
Bandwidth 57600 MB/sec 115200 MB/sec
Texel Rate 20800 Mtexels/sec 26400 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 10400 Mpixels/sec 26400 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 64 320(64x5) (x2)
Texture Mapping Units 32 16 (x2)
Render Output Units 16 16 (x2)
Bus Type GDDR3 GDDR3
Bus Width 256-bit 256-bit (x2)
Fab Process 65/55 nm 55 nm
Transistors 505 million (Unknown) million
Bus PCIe x16 2.0 PCIe 2.0 x16/(internal PCIe 1.1 x16)
DirectX Version DirectX 10 DirectX 10.1
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 3.0

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the max amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, 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 are processed per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video 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 amount of pixels the video card could possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as 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 ability to get to the max fill rate.

Display Prices

Hide Prices

GeForce 9600 GT 1GB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 3870 X2 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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