GeForce 8800 GT 1GB vs GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3, which comes with core speeds of 550 MHz on the GPU, and 800 MHz on the 512 MB of GDDR3 RAM. It features 32 SPUs along with 16 Texture Address Units and 8 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		50 Watts
GeForce 8800 GT 1GB		105 Watts
	Difference: 55 Watts (110%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce 8800 GT 1GB, in theory, should perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3 overall. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GT 1GB		57600 MB/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		25600 MB/sec
	Difference: 32000 (125%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GT 1GB should be much (more or less 282%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GT 1GB		33600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		8800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 24800 (282%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce 8800 GT 1GB is superior to the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GT 1GB		9600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 5200 (118%)

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 maximum amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card could 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 clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.