GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 vs GeForce GTX 580

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 580, which comes with a core clock frequency of 772 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1002 MHz. It also uses a 384-bit bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It is made up of 512 SPUs, 64 TAUs, and 48 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		50 Watts
GeForce GTX 580		244 Watts
	Difference: 194 Watts (388%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 580 should in theory perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580		192384 MB/sec
GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		16000 MB/sec
	Difference: 176384 (1102%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 should be much (about 461%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580		49408 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		8800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 40608 (461%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 should be quite a bit (approximately 742%) more effective at AA than the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2, and should be able to handle higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580		37056 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 32656 (742%)

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 largest amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card could 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 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 output rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.