GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB vs GeForce GT 320

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GT 320, which has a clock frequency of 540 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 790 MHz. It also makes use of a 128-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It is made up of 72 SPUs, 24 TAUs, and 8 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 320		43 Watts
GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB		84 Watts
	Difference: 41 Watts (95%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB should in theory be much better than the GeForce GT 320 overall. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB		38400 MB/sec
GeForce GT 320		25280 MB/sec
	Difference: 13120 (52%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB is a lot (more or less 104%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GT 320. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB		26400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 320		12960 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 13440 (104%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB will be quite a bit (about 53%) better at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GT 320, and able to handle higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB		6600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 320		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2280 (53%)

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 transferred over the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the 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 that the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.