GeForce 9600M GT Mac Edition vs FX 5950 Ultra
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | 1417 | not rated |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Power efficiency | 0.14 | no data |
| Architecture | Rankine (2003−2005) | Tesla (2006−2010) |
| GPU code name | NV38 | G96C |
| Market segment | Desktop | Laptop |
| Release date | 23 October 2003 (21 year ago) | 25 October 2008 (16 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $499 | no data |
Cost-effectiveness evaluation
Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.
Detailed specifications
General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.
| Pipelines / CUDA cores | no data | 32 |
| Core clock speed | 475 MHz | 500 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 135 million | 314 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 130 nm | 55 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 74 Watt | 23 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 3.800 | 8.000 |
| Floating-point processing power | no data | 0.08 TFLOPS |
| ROPs | 4 | 8 |
| TMUs | 8 | 16 |
Form factor & compatibility
Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).
| Interface | AGP 8x | MXM-II |
| Length | 229 mm | no data |
| Width | 2-slot | no data |
| Supplementary power connectors | 1x Molex | no data |
VRAM capacity and type
Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.
| Memory type | DDR | GDDR3 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 256 MB | 512 MB |
| Memory bus width | 256 Bit | 128 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 475 MHz | 792 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 30.4 GB/s | 25.34 GB/s |
Connectivity and outputs
Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.
| Display Connectors | 1x DVI, 1x VGA, 1x S-Video | No outputs |
API compatibility
List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 9.0a | 11.1 (10_0) |
| Shader Model | no data | 4.0 |
| OpenGL | 2.1 | 3.3 |
| OpenCL | N/A | 1.1 |
| Vulkan | N/A | N/A |
| CUDA | - | 1.1 |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 23 October 2003 | 25 October 2008 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 256 MB | 512 MB |
| Chip lithography | 130 nm | 55 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 74 Watt | 23 Watt |
9600M GT Mac Edition has an age advantage of 5 years, a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 136.4% more advanced lithography process, and 221.7% lower power consumption.
We couldn't decide between GeForce FX 5950 Ultra and GeForce 9600M GT Mac Edition. We've got no test results to judge.
Be aware that GeForce FX 5950 Ultra is a desktop card while GeForce 9600M GT Mac Edition is a notebook one.
Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.
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