GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB vs GeForce GTS 150

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTS 150, which features a GPU core clock speed of 740 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR3 memory running at 500 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is made up of 128 Stream Processors, 64 Texture Address Units, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB		84 Watts
GeForce GTS 150		141 Watts
	Difference: 57 Watts (68%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB should theoretically be a small bit better than the GeForce GTS 150 overall. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB		38400 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 150		32000 MB/sec
	Difference: 6400 (20%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 150 will be quite a bit (approximately 79%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB. (explain)

GeForce GTS 150		47360 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB		26400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 20960 (79%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTS 150 is the winner, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTS 150		11840 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB		6600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 5240 (79%)

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 information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better 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 applied per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.