GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3 vs GeForce GTX 480

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 480, which features a core clock frequency of 700 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 924 MHz. It also makes use of a 384-bit bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It features 480 SPUs, 60 Texture Address Units, and 48 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 480		250 Watts
	Difference: 200 Watts (400%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce GTX 480 should perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		177408 MB/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		25600 MB/sec
	Difference: 151808 (593%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 480 should be quite a bit (approximately 377%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		42000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		8800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 33200 (377%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 480 should be quite a bit (about 664%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3, and also will be capable of handling higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		33600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 29200 (664%)

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 data (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, 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 processed in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core clock 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 in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip could possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.