GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3 vs GeForce GTX 660

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 660, which comes with core clock speeds of 980 MHz on the GPU, and 1502 MHz on the 2048 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 960 SPUs as well as 80 Texture Address Units and 24 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		50 Watts
GeForce GTX 660		140 Watts
	Difference: 90 Watts (180%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 660 should perform much faster than the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		144192 MB/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		25600 MB/sec
	Difference: 118592 (463%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 660 will be much (approximately 791%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		78400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		8800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 69600 (791%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 660 is a better choice, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		23520 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		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: Bandwidth is the largest amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.