GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB vs GeForce GT 220 GDDR3

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GT 220 GDDR3, which comes with GPU core speed of 625 MHz, and 512 MB of GDDR3 RAM running at 1012 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is made up of 48 SPUs, 16 Texture Address Units, and 8 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 220 GDDR3		58 Watts
GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		84 Watts
	Difference: 26 Watts (45%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB should perform a small bit faster than the GeForce GT 220 GDDR3 overall. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		38400 MB/sec
GeForce GT 220 GDDR3		32384 MB/sec
	Difference: 6016 (19%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB should be much (about 164%) better at AF than the GeForce GT 220 GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		26400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 220 GDDR3		10000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 16400 (164%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB is a better choice, by far. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		6600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 220 GDDR3		5000 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1600 (32%)

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 data (counted in MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs 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 rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.