GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 vs GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB, which has core speeds of 650 MHz on the GPU, and 900 MHz on the 512 MB of GDDR3 RAM. It features 96 SPUs along with 48 TAUs and 16 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 9600 GSO 512MB		90 Watts
	Difference: 40 Watts (80%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB will be 260% faster than the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 overall, because of its greater bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		57600 MB/sec
GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		16000 MB/sec
	Difference: 41600 (260%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB should be much (more or less 255%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		31200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		8800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 22400 (255%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB is the winner, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 6000 (136%)

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 (in units of MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better 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 can be applied per second. This is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock 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 in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.