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GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 vs GeForce 9800 GT 1GB

Intro

The GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 has a core clock frequency of 550 MHz and a DDR2 memory frequency of 500 MHz. It also features a 128-bit memory bus, and uses a 65 nm design. It features 32 SPUs, 16 TAUs, and 8 Raster Operation Units.

Compare those specs to the GeForce 9800 GT 1GB, which features core speeds of 600 MHz on the GPU, and 900 MHz on the 1024 MB of GDDR3 memory. It features 112 SPUs as well as 56 Texture Address Units and 16 ROPs.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		50 Watts
GeForce 9800 GT 1GB		105 Watts
	Difference: 55 Watts (110%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce 9800 GT 1GB should theoretically be a lot better than the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 in general. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GT 1GB		57600 MB/sec
GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		16000 MB/sec
	Difference: 41600 (260%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GT 1GB should be a lot (about 282%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GT 1GB		33600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		8800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 24800 (282%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GT 1GB should be a lot (more or less 118%) faster with regards to anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2, and should be able to handle higher screen resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GT 1GB		9600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 5200 (118%)

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

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GeForce 9500 GT DDR2

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GeForce 9800 GT 1GB

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Specifications

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Model	GeForce 9500 GT DDR2	GeForce 9800 GT 1GB
Manufacturer	nVidia	nVidia
Year	July 2008	July 2008
Code Name	G96a	G92a/b
Memory	256 MB	1024 MB
Core Speed	550 MHz	600 MHz
Memory Speed	1000 MHz	1800 MHz
Power (Max TDP)	50 watts	105 watts
Bandwidth	16000 MB/sec	57600 MB/sec
Texel Rate	8800 Mtexels/sec	33600 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate	4400 Mpixels/sec	9600 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders	32	112
Texture Mapping Units	16	56
Render Output Units	8	16
Bus Type	DDR2	GDDR3
Bus Width	128-bit	256-bit
Fab Process	65 nm	65/55 nm
Transistors	314 million	754 million
Bus	PCIe x16 2.0, PCI	PCIe x16 2.0
DirectX Version	DirectX 10	DirectX 10
OpenGL Version	OpenGL 3.0	OpenGL 3.0

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the largest amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip could possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.

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