GeForce 9600 GT 512MB vs GeForce GTX 480

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 480, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 700 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM runs at a speed of 924 MHz on this specific card. It features 480 SPUs as well as 60 TAUs and 48 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		95 Watts
GeForce GTX 480		250 Watts
	Difference: 155 Watts (163%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 480 should theoretically be quite a bit superior to the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		177408 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 119808 (208%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 480 will be quite a bit (about 102%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		42000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		20800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 21200 (102%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 480 is much (about 223%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB, and also will be able to handle higher resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		33600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 23200 (223%)

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 largest amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.