GeForce 9600 GT 512MB vs GeForce GTS 450

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTS 450, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 783 MHz. The GDDR5 memory works at a speed of 902 MHz on this particular model. It features 192 SPUs as well as 32 Texture Address Units and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		95 Watts
GeForce GTS 450		106 Watts
	Difference: 11 Watts (12%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce GTS 450 should perform just a bit faster than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450		57728 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 128 (0%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 450 is just a bit (about 20%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450		25056 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		20800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 4256 (20%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTS 450 will be just a bit (about 20%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB, and also should be able to handle higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450		12528 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2128 (20%)

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 in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip could possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.