GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB vs GeForce GTX 860M

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 860M, which features GPU clock speed of 797 MHz, and 4096 MB of GDDR5 RAM set to run at 1000 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is comprised of 1152 Stream Processors, 96 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 860M		45 Watts
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		90 Watts
	Difference: 45 Watts (100%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce GTX 860M should be a little bit faster than the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB in general. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 860M will be much (more or less 145%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 860M		76512 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		31200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 45312 (145%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 860M should be quite a bit (about 23%) faster with regards to FSAA than the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB, and also will be able to handle higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 860M		12752 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 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: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, 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 amount of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.