NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT Mac Edition

The NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT Mac Edition is a mobile GPU from NVIDIA built around the G96C chip on a 55 nm TSMC process. The die contains 314 million transistors and measures 121 mm², for a transistor density of 2.6M/mm². It belongs to the GeForce 9M (9600M) generation and uses the Tesla architecture. The database lists a release date of 2008-10-24 and a production status of end-of-life. Its predecessor is the GeForce 8M and its successor is the GeForce 100M. The memory subsystem is 512 MB of GDDR3 on a 128-bit bus, with 25.34 GB/s of bandwidth; the memory clock is 792 MHz with 1584 Mbps effective signalling. The GPU has 32 shading units, 16 TMUs, and 8 ROPs. Its listed pixel rate is 4.000 GPixel/s, texture rate is 8.000 GTexel/s, and FP32 throughput is 80.00 GFLOPS. The part is an MXM-II module with an MXM Module slot width and portable-device-dependent display outputs. In the database’s global GPU ranking, it sits at the 50th percentile, while the benchmark array is empty and the average benchmark score is 0.

How It Compares

The nearestRivals list for this entry is empty. As a result, there are no rival names, no score comparisons, and no deltaPct values to present. The only comparative data are the historical placement fields: the predecessor is GeForce 8M, the successor is GeForce 100M, and the percentileVsAllGpus value is 50.

In practical terms, the 50th percentile locates the 9600M GT Mac Edition at the midpoint of the database’s GPU population, although the empty benchmark array means that placement is not derived from an average benchmark score in this record. Without nearestRivals, no percentage lead or deficit versus a specific competing GPU can be stated. The generational sequence from GeForce 8M to GeForce 100M also indicates its slot in the product line, but no score deltas are stored for those transitions. Thus the only rigorous positional statement is the percentile value itself.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The RT cores and tensor cores fields are both null, so no ray tracing hardware and no tensor hardware are listed. This places the feature set within the Tesla architecture’s conventional shading pipeline rather than in a hardware-accelerated ray tracing or AI-compute class. The API entries show DirectX 11.1 (10_0) and OpenGL 3.3; no Vulkan version is listed. The notation “11.1 (10_0)” means the GPU supports the DirectX 11.1 API but stops at a 10_0 feature level, which is an important distinction for applications that check feature levels rather than API versions.

OpenGL 3.3 is the sole OpenGL entry, and the absence of a Vulkan entry means Vulkan-based applications are not supported according to this record. The display outputs are described as portable-device dependent, so the output capabilities available to a user can depend on the host portable system. Memory is 512 MB of GDDR3 over a 128-bit interface, yielding 25.34 GB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock is 792 MHz with 1584 Mbps effective signalling.

The compute configuration is 32 shading units, 16 texture mapping units, and 8 raster output units. The listed pixel rate is 4.000 GPixel/s and the texture rate is 8.000 GTexel/s. FP32 throughput is 80.00 GFLOPS. No FP16 figure, no ray tracing rate, and no tensor throughput are recorded. The feature set is therefore bounded by the 10_0 feature level, the OpenGL 3.3 API, and the listed fixed-function throughput rates.

Benchmark Performance

The benchmarks array is empty, and the average benchmark score field is 0. Consequently, there are no measured application scores to report. The nearestRivals array is also empty, so there are no deltaPct values to compare against other GPUs. No statement such as “ahead of rival X by a percentage” can be derived from this entry.

What the entry does provide is a set of theoretical performance limits: 80.00 GFLOPS of FP32 compute, 8.000 GTexel/s of texture fill, 4.000 GPixel/s of pixel fill, and 25.34 GB/s of memory bandwidth. These limits are tied to the listed 32 shading units, 16 TMUs, 8 ROPs, and 128-bit GDDR3 memory. The texture rate and pixel rate are reported separately because the TMU count and ROP count are different; the database lists 16 TMUs against 8 ROPs.

The memory bandwidth of 25.34 GB/s follows from the 128-bit bus and the 792 MHz memory clock with 1584 Mbps effective signalling. Under memory-heavy workloads, this bandwidth is the ceiling for how quickly texture and pixel data can be moved. The 80.00 GFLOPS FP32 figure is the listed ceiling for shader compute work.

With no benchmark scores, the 50th percentile value cannot be converted into a specific frame-rate figure or into a percentage above or below a named rival. The percentile remains a relative placement, not a measured score. The listed throughput numbers are the most precise performance data available in this entry.

Power and Cooling

The listed TDP is 23 W. The power connector field says “None”, so no auxiliary graphics power cables are required. The suggested PSU field is null, so the database makes no system power supply recommendation. This is a mobile module, not a desktop card, and the absence of separate power connectors means the board receives power through the MXM connector rather than from a desktop PSU cable.

The slot width is described as an MXM Module, and the bus interface is MXM-II. These form-factor details tie the GPU to a specific mobile module standard. Cooling hardware is not described in the database; no fan, heatsink, or thermal solution details are present. The only thermal specification is the 23 W TDP.

The 55 nm TSMC process and 121 mm² die with 314 million transistors provide the physical context for that TDP. The production status is end-of-life, and the release date is 2008-10-24. In a power and cooling sense, the recorded 23 W figure is the design envelope that any host thermal solution must address.

Who Should Consider It

The absence of benchmark scores means no resolution-and-settings recommendation can be grounded in measured frames per second. Instead, the listed specification rates are the best available guide. The 512 MB GDDR3 memory and 25.34 GB/s bandwidth indicate a capacity and throughput envelope suited to moderate frame buffer sizes and texture loads. The 4.000 GPixel/s pixel rate and 8.000 GTexel/s texture rate set limits on pixel and texture work per frame; lower resolutions reduce pixel fill demand, while reduced texture detail lowers the load on the memory subsystem.

The 80.00 GFLOPS FP32 figure sets the shading and compute headroom available for shader instructions. With 32 shading units, the GPU can process a limited amount of parallelism compared with larger parts. The DirectX 11.1 (10_0) feature level and OpenGL 3.3 API boundary define which software can run; titles or rendering paths that require later feature levels will not be supported. The lack of Vulkan further narrows the supported application set.

Because display outputs are portable-device dependent, the usable output modes depend on the host system. The 23 W TDP points to a power envelope intended for portable systems. The 50th percentile database rank, paired with an empty benchmark list, suggests a mid-pack historical position rather than a score-based endorsement.

A user considering this GPU should set expectations against the listed rates: modest pixel and texture throughput, 512 MB of video memory, memory bandwidth of 25.34 GB/s, and API support that ends at DirectX 11.1 (10_0) and OpenGL 3.3. The end-of-life status means it is no longer an active product in the database. For workloads within those boundaries, the data indicates a functional but constrained mobile graphics solution.