GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB vs GeForce GT 1030

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GT 1030, which features a GPU core clock speed of 1265 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 1502 MHz through a 64-bit bus. It also is comprised of 384 SPUs, 32 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 1030		30 Watts
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		90 Watts
	Difference: 60 Watts (200%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB should in theory be a bit superior to the GeForce GT 1030 in general. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		57600 MB/sec
GeForce GT 1030		49152 MB/sec
	Difference: 8448 (17%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 1030 should be a lot (about 30%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GT 1030		40480 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		31200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 9280 (30%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GT 1030 is superior to the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GT 1030		20240 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 9840 (95%)

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 maximum amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type memory, the result 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 AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

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