GeForce 9600 GT 512MB vs GeForce GTX 860M

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 860M, which makes use of a 28 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 797 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM works at a frequency of 1000 MHz on this model. It features 1152 SPUs as well as 96 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 860M		45 Watts
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		95 Watts
	Difference: 50 Watts (111%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 860M should in theory be a little bit better than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 860M		64000 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 6400 (11%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 860M is a lot (more or less 268%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 860M		76512 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		20800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 55712 (268%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 860M is quite a bit (more or less 23%) more effective at AA than the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB, and capable of handling higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 860M		12752 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2352 (23%)

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 (measured in MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, 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 worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock 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 applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core 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 also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.