GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3 vs GeForce GTX 970

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 970, which features a core clock speed of 1050 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1750 MHz. It also makes use of a 256-bit memory bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It is made up of 1664 SPUs, 104 Texture Address Units, and 64 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		50 Watts
GeForce GTX 970		145 Watts
	Difference: 95 Watts (190%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 970 should theoretically perform much faster than the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970		224000 MB/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		25600 MB/sec
	Difference: 198400 (775%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 970 will be a lot (about 1141%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970		109200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		8800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 100400 (1141%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 970 should be much (more or less 1427%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3, and also should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970		67200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 62800 (1427%)

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 maximum amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card could possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.