GeForce 8800 Ultra vs GeForce 9500 GT DDR2

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2, which has core clock speeds of 550 MHz on the GPU, and 500 MHz on the 256 MB of DDR2 memory. It features 32 SPUs along with 16 TAUs and 8 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

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% quicker than the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 overall, because of its higher bandwidth. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 Ultra is a lot (more or less 345%) faster with regards to 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

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce 8800 Ultra is the winner, by far. (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: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster 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 higher the texel rate, 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 video card could possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.