GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3 vs GeForce GTX 960M

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 960M, which has clock speeds of 1096 MHz on the GPU, and 1000 MHz on the 2048 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 640 SPUs as well as 40 Texture Address Units and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		50 Watts
GeForce GTX 960M		65 Watts
	Difference: 15 Watts (30%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 960M will be 150% faster than the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3 in general, due to its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960M		64000 MB/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		25600 MB/sec
	Difference: 38400 (150%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 960M should be much (more or less 398%) better at AF than the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960M		43840 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		8800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 35040 (398%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 960M is superior to the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960M		17536 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 13136 (299%)

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 largest amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number 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 is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.