GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB vs GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3, which makes use of a 55 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 550 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM works at a speed of 800 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 512MB GDDR3		50 Watts
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		143 Watts
	Difference: 93 Watts (186%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB should in theory be a lot faster than the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3 overall. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		63360 MB/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		25600 MB/sec
	Difference: 37760 (148%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB is a lot (approximately 180%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		24624 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		8800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 15824 (180%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB is a better choice, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		10260 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 5860 (133%)

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 information (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster 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 are processed in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the card will be at 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 the video card could possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on many 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.