GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 vs Radeon HD 6950 2GB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 6950 2GB, which comes with a core clock frequency of 800 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1250 MHz. It also makes use of a 256-bit bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It is comprised of 1408 SPUs, 88 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		50 Watts
Radeon HD 6950 2GB		200 Watts
	Difference: 150 Watts (300%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon HD 6950 2GB will be 900% quicker than the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 in general, because of its greater bandwidth. (explain)

Radeon HD 6950 2GB		160000 MB/sec
GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		16000 MB/sec
	Difference: 144000 (900%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 6950 2GB is much (about 700%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2. (explain)

Radeon HD 6950 2GB		70400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		8800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 61600 (700%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the Radeon HD 6950 2GB is superior to the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2, by far. (explain)

Radeon HD 6950 2GB		25600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 21200 (482%)

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 information (counted in MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card 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 one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill 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.