GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3 vs GeForce GT 210

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GT 210, which has a core clock speed of 589 MHz and a DDR3 memory frequency of 800 MHz. It also features a 64-bit bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It features 16 SPUs, 8 Texture Address Units, and 4 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 210		31 Watts
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		50 Watts
	Difference: 19 Watts (61%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3 will be 100% faster than the GeForce GT 210 overall, due to its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		25600 MB/sec
GeForce GT 210		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 12800 (100%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3 will be a lot (approximately 87%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce GT 210. (explain)

GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		8800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 210		4712 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 4088 (87%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3 is a better choice, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		4400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 210		2356 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2044 (87%)

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 max amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of 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 Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.