<p>In my tests a GTX 1050 can do ~1B triangles with <code>glDrawElementsInstanced(GL_TRIANGLES, ...</code>. That's roughly 2/3 of chip clock. Arguably <code>GL_TRIANGLE_STRIP</code> can give you an x3 speed boost, but e.g. idtech4 only supports <code>GL_TRIANGLES</code>.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-14T13:10:24.283Z
2022-01-14T13:10:24.283Z
Anton Duzenko
<p>A friend got an MSI GTX 950 2GD5T graphics card for xmas.</p>

<p>I said "yeah, graphics cards are super fast now, that thing probably processes 2 billion triangles per second". Then I tried to look it up to check if that was even in the right ballpark, but I was unable to find a "triangles per second" stat for that card, and actually for many cards.</p>

<p>Is "triangles per second" even a meaningful stat? If so, what is the approximate number for this card? (given otherwise average conditions)</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-12-28T16:52:43.583Z
'Processes' is very vague. Is that vertex shader ops? Raterizer? Shading? All of the above? None of these are meaningful, because they have a massive scene dependence. FLOPS is kind of better, but still not great because it doesnt take into account register pressure, memory latency, etc.
RichieSams
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-12-29T18:32:58.440Z
I understand that there are all of these factors. Nonetheless, I'd be interested to know about how many triangles per second can be drawn assuming modest/reasonable/typical choices for the various factors (simple/default vertex and pixel shaders, simple lighting, big model being textured by some reasonable texture sheets).
M Katz
<efficiency><hardware>
MSI GTX 950 2GD5T triangles per second
M Katz
# MSI GTX 950 2GD5T triangles per second

(Asked by: username_0 on 2015-12-28)

A friend got an MSI GTX 950 2GD5T graphics card for xmas.

I said "yeah, graphics cards are super fast now, that thing probably processes 2 billion triangles per second". Then I tried to look it up to check if that was even in the right ballpark, but I was unable to find a "triangles per second" stat for that card, and actually for many cards.

Is "triangles per second" even a meaningful stat? If so, what is the approximate number for this card? (given otherwise average conditions)

**Tags:** efficiency, hardware

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: 'Processes' is very vague. Is that vertex shader ops? Raterizer? Shading? All of the above? None of these are meaningful, because they have a massive scene dependence. FLOPS is kind of better, but still not great because it doesnt take into account register pressure, memory latency, etc.  
> **username_0**: I understand that there are all of these factors. Nonetheless, I'd be interested to know about how many triangles per second can be drawn assuming modest/reasonable/typical choices for the various factors (simple/default vertex and pixel shaders, simple lighting, big model being textured by some reasonable texture sheets).  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2022-01-14. Score: 1

In my tests a GTX 1050 can do ~1B triangles with `glDrawElementsInstanced(GL_TRIANGLES, ...`. That's roughly 2/3 of chip clock. Arguably `GL_TRIANGLE_STRIP` can give you an x3 speed boost, but e.g. idtech4 only supports `GL_TRIANGLES`.


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