GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB vs GeForce 9800 GTX

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce 9800 GTX, which has GPU clock speed of 675 MHz, and 512 MB of GDDR3 RAM set to run at 1100 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is made up of 128 SPUs, 64 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		90 Watts
GeForce 9800 GTX		140 Watts
	Difference: 50 Watts (56%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce 9800 GTX should theoretically perform a lot faster than the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB in general. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX		70400 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 12800 (22%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GTX will be quite a bit (about 38%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX		43200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		31200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 12000 (38%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GTX should be a bit (about 4%) faster with regards to AA than the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB, and also should be able to handle higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX		10800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 400 (4%)

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 data (counted in MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card can possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the clock speed of the card. 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 many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.