Compare any two graphics cards:

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

Intro

The GeForce 8800 GT 1GB features a GPU core clock speed of 600 MHz, and the 1024 MB of GDDR3 memory runs at 900 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is made up of 112 SPUs, 56 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.

Compare those specs to the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3, which features a core clock speed of 550 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 800 MHz. It also uses a 128-bit bus, and makes use of a 55 nm design. It features 32 SPUs, 16 Texture Address Units, and 8 ROPs.

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

Performance-wise, the GeForce 8800 GT 1GB should theoretically be quite a bit better 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 (about 282%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering 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

The GeForce 8800 GT 1GB should be a lot (approximately 118%) faster with regards to AA than the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3, and also should be able to handle higher resolutions more effectively. (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

Display Prices

Hide Prices

GeForce 8800 GT 1GB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

Specifications

Display Specifications

Hide Specifications

Model	GeForce 8800 GT 1GB	GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3
Manufacturer	nVidia	nVidia
Year	Dec 2007	July 2008
Code Name	G92	G96b
Memory	1024 MB	512 MB
Core Speed	600 MHz	550 MHz
Memory Speed	1800 MHz	1600 MHz
Power (Max TDP)	105 watts	50 watts
Bandwidth	57600 MB/sec	25600 MB/sec
Texel Rate	33600 Mtexels/sec	8800 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate	9600 Mpixels/sec	4400 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders	112	32
Texture Mapping Units	56	16
Render Output Units	16	8
Bus Type	GDDR3	GDDR3
Bus Width	256-bit	128-bit
Fab Process	65 nm	55 nm
Transistors	754 million	314 million
Bus	PCIe x16 2.0	PCIe x16 2.0, PCI
DirectX Version	DirectX 10	DirectX 10
OpenGL Version	OpenGL 3.0	OpenGL 3.0

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the largest amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core 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 applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip could possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core speed of the card. 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, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.

Display Prices

Hide Prices