GeForce 9600 GT 1GB vs GeForce GT 420

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GT 420, which features a core clock speed of 700 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 900 MHz. It also features a 128-bit memory bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It is comprised of 48 SPUs, 8 TAUs, and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 420		50 Watts
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		95 Watts
	Difference: 45 Watts (90%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB should in theory be a lot superior to the GeForce GT 420 in general. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		57600 MB/sec
GeForce GT 420		28800 MB/sec
	Difference: 28800 (100%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GT 1GB should be much (about 271%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GT 420. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		20800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 420		5600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 15200 (271%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GT 1GB will be quite a bit (approximately 271%) better at FSAA than the GeForce GT 420, and also should be capable of handling higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		10400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 420		2800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 7600 (271%)

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 maximum amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also 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 bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.