GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3 vs GeForce GTX 460 SE

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 460 SE, which comes with GPU core speed of 650 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR5 memory set to run at 850 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is comprised of 288 Stream Processors, 48 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		50 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 SE		150 Watts
	Difference: 100 Watts (200%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 460 SE should perform much faster than the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		108800 MB/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		25600 MB/sec
	Difference: 83200 (325%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 SE should be a lot (about 255%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		31200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		8800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 22400 (255%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 SE should be much (approximately 373%) more effective at FSAA than the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3, and capable of handling higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		20800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 16400 (373%)

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 largest amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, 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 most pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of 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 many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.