GeForce GTX 280 vs GeForce GTX 950

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 950, which has core speeds of 1024 MHz on the GPU, and 1652 MHz on the 2048 MB of GDDR5 RAM. It features 768 SPUs as well as 48 Texture Address Units and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 950		90 Watts
GeForce GTX 280		236 Watts
	Difference: 146 Watts (162%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 280 should theoretically be much faster than the GeForce GTX 950 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 280		141696 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 950		105728 MB/sec
	Difference: 35968 (34%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 950 should be just a bit (about 2%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 280. (explain)

GeForce GTX 950		49152 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 280		48160 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 992 (2%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 950 should be quite a bit (about 70%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 280, and also able to handle higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 950		32768 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 280		19264 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 13504 (70%)

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: Bandwidth is the max amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the video 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 that the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines 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 rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.