GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 vs GeForce GTX 660

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 660, which has a GPU core clock speed of 980 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 RAM running at 1502 MHz through a 192-bit bus. It also features 960 SPUs, 80 Texture Address Units, and 24 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		50 Watts
GeForce GTX 660		140 Watts
	Difference: 90 Watts (180%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 660 should in theory be a lot faster than the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		144192 MB/sec
GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		16000 MB/sec
	Difference: 128192 (801%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 660 is quite a bit (approximately 791%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		78400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		8800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 69600 (791%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 660 is superior to the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		23520 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 19120 (435%)

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: Memory bandwidth is the max amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the video card will be at handling 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 that the graphics chip can possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines 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, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.