In terms of overall gaming performance, the graphical capabilities of the Nvidia GeForce 9600 GSO are marginally better than the Intel HD Graphics 510 Desktop.

The GeForce 9600 GSO has a 200 MHz higher core clock speed and 40 more Texture Mapping Units than the Graphics 510. This results in the GeForce 9600 GSO providing 23.6 GTexel/s better texturing performance. This still holds weight but shader performance is generally more relevant, particularly since both of these GPUs support at least DirectX 10.

The GeForce 9600 GSO has a 200 MHz higher core clock speed and 8 more Render Output Units than the Graphics 510. This results in the GeForce 9600 GSO providing 5.2 GPixel/s better pixeling performance. However, both GPUs support DirectX 9 or above, and pixeling performance is only really relevant when comparing older cards.

The Graphics 510 was released over three years more recently than the GeForce 9600 GSO, and so the Graphics 510 is likely to have far better driver support, meaning it will be much more optimized and ultimately superior to the GeForce 9600 GSO when running the latest games.

The GeForce 9600 GSO has 384 MB video memory, but the Graphics 510 does not have an entry, so the two GPUs cannot be reliably compared in this area.

The HD Graphics 510 Desktop has 12 Shader Processing Units and the GeForce 9600 GSO has 96. However, the actual shader performance of the Graphics 510 is 101 and the actual shader performance of the GeForce 9600 GSO is 132. The GeForce 9600 GSO having 31 better shader performance and an altogether better performance when taking into account other relevant data means that the GeForce 9600 GSO delivers a slightly smoother and more efficient experience when processing graphical data than the Graphics 510.

The Graphics 510 transistor size technology is 51 nm (nanometers) smaller than the GeForce 9600 GSO. This means that the Graphics 510 is expected to run massively cooler and achieve higher clock frequencies than the GeForce 9600 GSO. While they exhibit similar graphical performance, the Graphics 510 should consume less power than the GeForce 9600 GSO.

The HD Graphics 510 Desktop requires 47 Watts to run and the GeForce 9600 GSO requires 84 Watts. We would recommend a PSU with at least 300 Watts for the Graphics 510 and a PSU with at least 400 Watts for the GeForce 9600 GSO. The GeForce 9600 GSO requires 37 Watts more than the Graphics 510 to run. The difference is significant enough that the GeForce 9600 GSO may have a slight adverse affect on your yearly electricity bills in comparison to the Graphics 510.