GeForce 8800 Ultra vs GeForce 9500 GT DDR2

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2, which uses a 65 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 550 MHz. The DDR2 memory works at a speed of 500 MHz on this specific model. It features 32 SPUs as well as 16 TAUs and 8 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		50 Watts
GeForce 8800 Ultra		171 Watts
	Difference: 121 Watts (242%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 8800 Ultra is 548% faster than the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 in general, due to its greater bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce 8800 Ultra		103680 MB/sec
GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		16000 MB/sec
	Difference: 87680 (548%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 Ultra should be quite a bit (more or less 345%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2. (explain)

GeForce 8800 Ultra		39168 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		8800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 30368 (345%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 8800 Ultra should be quite a bit (more or less 234%) better at FSAA than the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2, and also should be able to handle higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce 8800 Ultra		14688 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 10288 (234%)

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 information (measured in MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, 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 texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.