GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3 vs GeForce GTX 480

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 480, which uses a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 700 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM is set to run at a speed of 924 MHz on this particular model. It features 480 SPUs along with 60 TAUs and 48 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		50 Watts
GeForce GTX 480		250 Watts
	Difference: 200 Watts (400%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 480 should theoretically be a lot superior to the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		177408 MB/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		25600 MB/sec
	Difference: 151808 (593%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 480 is much (more or less 377%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		42000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		8800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 33200 (377%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 480 will be quite a bit (approximately 664%) faster with regards to FSAA than the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3, and capable of handling higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		33600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		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 data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher 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 are applied in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

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