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

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3, which comes with a core clock frequency of 550 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 800 MHz. It also features a 128-bit bus, and makes use of a 55 nm design. It is made up of 32 SPUs, 16 Texture Address Units, 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

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB should perform 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 should be quite a bit (more or less 180%) faster with regards to AF 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

The GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB should be a lot (approximately 133%) more effective at FSAA than the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3, and should be capable of handling higher resolutions while still performing well. (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 maximum amount of information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster 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 can be processed per second. This is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in one second.

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