GeForce GTS 450 1GB vs GeForce GTX 950M

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 950M, which uses a 28 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 914 MHz. The DDR3 memory works at a frequency of 1000 MHz on this particular model. It features 640 SPUs along with 40 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 950M		55 Watts
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		106 Watts
	Difference: 51 Watts (93%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTS 450 1GB will be 80% quicker than the GeForce GTX 950M overall, due to its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		57728 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 950M		32000 MB/sec
	Difference: 25728 (80%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 950M will be much (approximately 46%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GTS 450 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 950M		36560 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		25056 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 11504 (46%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 950M is a better choice, but not by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 950M		14624 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		12528 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2096 (17%)

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 (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

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