NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT vs ATI Radeon HD 4550

General info

Comparison of graphics card architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters.

Place in performance rating	1059	not rated
Architecture	TeraScale (2005−2013)	Tesla (2006−2010)
GPU code name	RV710	G96
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Release date	30 September 2008 (14 years old)	29 July 2008 (14 years old)
Launch price (MSRP)	$59	$85.99
Current price	$122 (2.1x MSRP)	$203 (2.4x MSRP)

Technical specs

General performance parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider their benchmark and gaming test results. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	80	32
CUDA cores	no data	32
Core clock speed	600 MHz	550 MHz
Number of transistors	242 million	314 million
Manufacturing process technology	55 nm	65 nm
Thermal design power (TDP)	25 Watt	50 Watt
Maximum GPU temperature	no data	105 °C
Texture fill rate	4.800	8.8 billion/sec
Floating-point performance	96 gflops	89.6 gflops

Compatibility, dimensions and requirements

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop video cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Interface	PCIe 2.0 x16	PCIe 2.0 x16
Length	168 mm	6.875" (17.5 cm)
Height	no data	4.376" (11.1 cm)
Width	1-slot	1-slot
Supplementary power connectors	None	None
SLI options	no data	+

Memory

Parameters of memory installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Note that GPUs integrated into processors have no dedicated VRAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory type	DDR2	GDDR3
Maximum RAM amount	256 MB	1 GB
Memory bus width	64 Bit	128 Bit
Memory clock speed	1310 MHz	800 (GDDR3) and 500 (DDR2) MHz
Memory bandwidth	10.48 GB/s	25.6 (GDDR3) and 16.0 (DDR2)

Video outputs and ports

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display Connectors	1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort	Dual Link DVISingle Link DVI
Multi monitor support	no data	+
HDMI	+	+
Maximum VGA resolution	no data	2048x1536
Audio input for HDMI	no data	S/PDIF

API support

APIs supported, including particular versions of those APIs.

DirectX	10.1 (10_1)	11.1 (10_0)
Shader Model	4.1	4.0
OpenGL	3.3	2.1
OpenCL	1.1	1.1
Vulkan	N/A	N/A
CUDA	no data	+

Benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark performance comparison. Note that overall benchmark performance is measured in points in 0-100 range.

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Advantages and disadvantages

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Recency	30 September 2008	29 July 2008
Cost	$59	$85.99
Memory bus width	64	128
Pipelines / CUDA cores	80	32
Memory bandwidth	10.48	25.6
Chip lithography	55 nm	65 nm
Thermal design power (TDP)	25 Watt	50 Watt

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Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

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