GeForce 9400 GT 256MB vs GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512, which features GPU core speed of 550 MHz, and 512 MB of DDR2 RAM set to run at 500 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also features 96 Stream Processors, 48 Texture Address Units, and 12 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		50 Watts
GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512		84 Watts
	Difference: 34 Watts (68%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512 is 25% faster than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB in general, because of its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512		16000 MB/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 3200 (25%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512 is a lot (more or less 500%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512		26400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		4400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 22000 (500%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512 is superior to the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512		6600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		2200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 4400 (200%)

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 max amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of 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 rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.