GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB vs GeForce GTS 450 1GB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTS 450 1GB, which comes with a core clock frequency of 783 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 902 MHz. It also makes use of a 128-bit bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It is comprised of 192 SPUs, 32 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		90 Watts
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		106 Watts
	Difference: 16 Watts (18%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTS 450 1GB, in theory, should be a little bit faster than the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		57728 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 128 (0%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB is a lot (about 25%) better at AF than the GeForce GTS 450 1GB. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		31200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		25056 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 6144 (25%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTS 450 1GB is a better choice, though not by far. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		12528 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 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: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 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 high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card 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 in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.