GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3 vs GeForce GT 320

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GT 320, which comes with a core clock speed of 540 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 790 MHz. It also makes use of a 128-bit memory bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It is made up of 72 SPUs, 24 Texture Address Units, and 8 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 320		43 Watts
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		50 Watts
	Difference: 7 Watts (16%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3 should theoretically perform a small bit faster than the GeForce GT 320 in general. (explain)

GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		25600 MB/sec
GeForce GT 320		25280 MB/sec
	Difference: 320 (1%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 320 should be much (approximately 47%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce GT 320		12960 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		8800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 4160 (47%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3 is a bit (more or less 2%) more effective at AA than the GeForce GT 320, and will be capable of handling higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		4400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 320		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 80 (2%)

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 largest amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This figure 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 graphics card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as 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 maximum fill rate.