GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB vs GeForce GT 320

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GT 320, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 540 MHz. The GDDR3 memory runs at a frequency of 790 MHz on this particular model. It features 72 SPUs as well as 24 Texture Address Units and 8 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 320		43 Watts
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		90 Watts
	Difference: 47 Watts (109%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB will be 128% faster than the GeForce GT 320 overall, because of its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		57600 MB/sec
GeForce GT 320		25280 MB/sec
	Difference: 32320 (128%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB is quite a bit (approximately 141%) better at AF than the GeForce GT 320. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		31200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 320		12960 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 18240 (141%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB is a better choice, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 320		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 6080 (141%)

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 largest amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.