GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 vs GeForce GT 210

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GT 210, which comes with a GPU core clock speed of 589 MHz, and 512 MB of DDR3 memory set to run at 800 MHz through a 64-bit bus. It also is comprised of 16 SPUs, 8 Texture Address Units, and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 210		31 Watts
GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		50 Watts
	Difference: 19 Watts (61%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 should theoretically be a lot better than the GeForce GT 210 overall. (explain)

GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		16000 MB/sec
GeForce GT 210		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 3200 (25%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 should be much (about 87%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GT 210. (explain)

GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		8800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 210		4712 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 4088 (87%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 will be quite a bit (more or less 87%) better at AA than the GeForce GT 210, and also should be capable of handling higher resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		4400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 210		2356 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2044 (87%)

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 data (in units of MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, 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 can be applied in one second. This number is calculated 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 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 most pixels the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of ROPs 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 quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.