GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 vs GeForce GTX 480

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 480, which uses a 40 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 700 MHz. The GDDR5 memory works at a frequency of 924 MHz on this card. It features 480 SPUs along with 60 TAUs and 48 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		50 Watts
GeForce GTX 480		250 Watts
	Difference: 200 Watts (400%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 480 should theoretically be much superior to the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		177408 MB/sec
GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		16000 MB/sec
	Difference: 161408 (1009%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 480 should be much (approximately 377%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		42000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		8800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 33200 (377%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 480 is a better choice, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		33600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 29200 (664%)

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 (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core clock 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 processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.