9600GT 1GB vs GTX 550 TI 1GB - Margin of difference?

So I have a dilemma. I can get a GeForce GTX 550 TI for a relatively good price.

BUT, I have a Geforce 9600GT which has been loyal to me for almost 3 years now. According to all benchmarks, specifications etc. I can find, the GTX 550 trumps the 9600GT.

But there is a little voice in my head saying it's not worth the money. Am I right?

Coz I looked at things like these, which made me doubt the advantage of the 550:

- Bit rate and Memory: 9600 is 256 bit and 550 is 192 bit, buuuut the 9600 has a memory clock of 2050MHz GDDR5, while the 9600 has a memory clock of 900MHz GDDR3. Which one trumps that? Logic there says 550, but then I couldn't really tell how much of a role the bitrate plays.
- Graphics/Processor clock: the 9600 has a standard graphics clock of 650MHz, and the 550 a standard of 900Mhz, but the 9600GT's multiplier is 2.5, which means its Processor clock is 1625MH, while the 550's multiplier is only 2, which means its processor clock is only 1800MHz, and after the 9600 is overclocked I get a processor clock of 1750Mhz. Would the 550 be as easily overclockable as well?
- DirectX support: 9600GT = DirectX 10, 550 = DirectX 11. Performance-wise, which is better? Coz I couldn't be arsed with graphical quality difference, it looks basically the same.

While these following things are clear winners for the 550, although I could be mistaken, as stated below:

- Processor Cores: 9600 has 64, 550 has 192. That is a factor of 3 to 1. Is that even significant?
- Memory bandwidth: 9600GT = 57.6GB/sec, 550 = 98.4GB/sec -> is that a significant enough advantage, in other words a dealbreaker?
- Texture Fill Rate: 9600GT = 20.8 billion/sec, 550 = 28.8 billion/sec -> obviously the 550 beats the 9600, but is it a big difference?
- Pixel Shader version: 9600GT = 4, 550 = 5. Longevity probably counts in favour of the 550, but performance-wise, if games don't utilise version 5, would it even matter for the immediate future?

Would it be better to buy the 550, or wait a few months so that higher spec cards come down to the same price, and if so, which cards that are significantly better are worth waiting for?

Here is a direct comparison of the 2, with specs right at the bottom.

Any advice?

Thanks guys!

In a nutshell, I'd expect this sort of trend:

In newer games the 550 will destroy the 9600.
In older games there'll be less of a difference.


I don't know about South Africa, but in the UK the 460 is only £5-10 more than the 550 TI, and it's around 10% faster. If you can get a decent deal on a 460, that would be the one to go for.

Keep in mind that for the 550 TI you'll need a 6-pin power connector (not all 9600GTs needed this, so you may not have one). The 460 will need 2 6-pin power connectors.

I'd agree with the above - just to say though, that looking at specs such as memory clocks, cores etc is pretty pointless if you're buying a graphics card - you should just look for real-word data: benchmark comparisons in the games you'll be playing, noise, temperatures and power consumption
Just to add that in my opinion the 460 probably hits the sweet-spot in terms of price vs performance atm (or at least it did a couple of months ago when I was looking around in the UK)

Edit: A bit more research suggests that the GTX 550 Ti offers similar performance to the ATI 5770/6770, with the GTX 460 768MB and the ATI 6790 a little better - of course this all depends on the prices you can get where you are.

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Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 07/18/2011 02:30AM by Robert.

Thank you for the replies guys.

Well I went ahead after taking your advice, and decided on the GTX 550 as the way to go, as its benchmark results were about twice what my old card was giving me . All my games have waaay better framerates now, much more than previously. You guys helped alot. And the 460, while being a better proposition, with our exchange rate, a 70% price difference to the 550 wasn't really an option at this stage, though I will keep it in mind for the future when its price comes down.

But I have a slight problem now in terms of intermittent stuttering which might be because of my new card, but maybe not, which I would elaborate on in a new thread, so as to give my problem the best chance to be resolved.

Anyway, generally happy, and thanks a lot for your input.