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GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3 vs Radeon HD 3470 256MB

Intro

The GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3 comes with a core clock speed of 550 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 800 MHz. It also makes use of a 128-bit bus, and makes use of a 55 nm design. It features 32 SPUs, 16 Texture Address Units, and 8 Raster Operation Units.

Compare that to the Radeon HD 3470 256MB, which makes use of a 55 nm design. AMD has clocked the core speed at 800 MHz. The DDR2 RAM is set to run at a frequency of 950 MHz on this particular card. It features 40(8x5) SPUs along with 4 TAUs and 4 Rasterization Operator Units.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Radeon HD 3470 256MB should perform a small bit faster than the GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3 overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 3470 256MB 30400 MB/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3 25600 MB/sec
Difference: 4800 (19%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3 is much (more or less 175%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the Radeon HD 3470 256MB. (explain)

GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3 8800 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3470 256MB 3200 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 5600 (175%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3 is the winner, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3 4400 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3470 256MB 3200 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 1200 (38%)

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

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GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3

Amazon.com

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Radeon HD 3470 256MB

Amazon.com

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Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

Specifications

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Model GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3 Radeon HD 3470 256MB
Manufacturer nVidia AMD
Year July 2008 2008
Code Name G96b RV620 PRO
Memory 1024 MB 256 MB
Core Speed 550 MHz 800 MHz
Memory Speed 1600 MHz 1900 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 50 watts (Unknown) watts
Bandwidth 25600 MB/sec 30400 MB/sec
Texel Rate 8800 Mtexels/sec 3200 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 4400 Mpixels/sec 3200 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 32 40(8x5)
Texture Mapping Units 16 4
Render Output Units 8 4
Bus Type GDDR3 DDR2
Bus Width 128-bit 128-bit
Fab Process 55 nm 55 nm
Transistors 314 million (Unknown) million
Bus PCIe x16 2.0, PCI PCIe 2.0 x16
DirectX Version DirectX 10 DirectX 10.1
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 3.0

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the max amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This figure 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 in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.

Display Prices

Hide Prices

GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 3470 256MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

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