GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 vs GeForce GT 220 GDDR3

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GT 220 GDDR3, which features a clock speed of 625 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 1012 MHz. It also features a 128-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It is comprised of 48 SPUs, 16 Texture Address Units, and 8 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		50 Watts
GeForce GT 220 GDDR3		58 Watts
	Difference: 8 Watts (16%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GT 220 GDDR3 should in theory perform much faster than the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 overall. (explain)

GeForce GT 220 GDDR3		32384 MB/sec
GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		16000 MB/sec
	Difference: 16384 (102%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 220 GDDR3 is a bit (approximately 14%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2. (explain)

GeForce GT 220 GDDR3		10000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		8800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 1200 (14%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GT 220 GDDR3 is a better choice, but it probably won't make a huge difference. (explain)

GeForce GT 220 GDDR3		5000 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 600 (14%)

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 megabytes per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, 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 texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

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