GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3 vs GeForce GTX 970M

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 970M, which comes with a core clock speed of 924 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1000 MHz. It also makes use of a 192-bit memory bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It is comprised of 1280 SPUs, 80 Texture Address Units, and 48 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3		50 Watts
GeForce GTX 970M		75 Watts
	Difference: 25 Watts (50%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 970M should be 275% quicker than the GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3 in general, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970M		96000 MB/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3		25600 MB/sec
	Difference: 70400 (275%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 970M should be quite a bit (approximately 740%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970M		73920 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3		8800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 65120 (740%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 970M is quite a bit (approximately 908%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3, and also will be able to handle higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970M		44352 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 1GB 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 max amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video 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 maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.