GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3 vs GeForce GTX 460 2GB

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 460 2GB, which comes with a clock speed of 675 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 900 MHz. It also uses a 256-bit bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It features 336 SPUs, 56 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3		50 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 2GB		160 Watts
	Difference: 110 Watts (220%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 460 2GB should in theory be a lot better than the GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		115200 MB/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3		25600 MB/sec
	Difference: 89600 (350%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 2GB is a lot (approximately 330%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		37800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3		8800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 29000 (330%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 2GB is much (more or less 391%) better at AA than the GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3, and also able to handle higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		21600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 17200 (391%)

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 MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units 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 per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.