GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512 vs GeForce GTX 460 1GB

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 460 1GB, which comes with a core clock speed of 675 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 900 MHz. It also features a 256-bit memory bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It features 336 SPUs, 56 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512		84 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 1GB		160 Watts
	Difference: 76 Watts (90%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 460 1GB should be much faster than the GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		115200 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512		16000 MB/sec
	Difference: 99200 (620%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 1GB will be a lot (approximately 43%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		37800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512		26400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 11400 (43%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 460 1GB is a better choice, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		21600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512		6600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 15000 (227%)

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 largest amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the video card can possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.