GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3 vs GeForce GTS 450 1GB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTS 450 1GB, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 783 MHz. The GDDR5 memory works at a frequency of 902 MHz on this model. It features 192 SPUs along with 32 TAUs and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		50 Watts
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		106 Watts
	Difference: 56 Watts (112%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTS 450 1GB should in theory perform much faster than the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		57728 MB/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		25600 MB/sec
	Difference: 32128 (126%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 450 1GB will be a lot (about 185%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		25056 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		8800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 16256 (185%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTS 450 1GB is a better choice, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		12528 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 8128 (185%)

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 max amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the better 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 are applied in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed per second.

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