GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3 vs GeForce GTX 970M

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 970M, which has a clock speed of 924 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1000 MHz. It also features a 192-bit bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It is made up of 1280 SPUs, 80 TAUs, and 48 Raster Operation 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 970M		75 Watts
	Difference: 25 Watts (50%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 970M should be 275% faster than the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3 in general, because of its greater bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970M		96000 MB/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		25600 MB/sec
	Difference: 70400 (275%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 970M should be much (about 740%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970M		73920 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		8800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 65120 (740%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 970M will be a lot (approximately 908%) better at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3, and capable of handling higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970M		44352 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 39952 (908%)

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 data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units 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 processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.