Gaussian blur and median filtering on a noisy image

The column in the middle is the image with gaussian blur and the right column is the image with median filter – top amount = 2 and bottom amount = 4. The gaussian blur seems to be better at removing points of noise although I like the effect the median filter creates.

Source

for (int i = 0; i < width; i++){
		for (int j = 0; j < height; j++){

			int pixIndex = j * width + i;

			int i_m_1 = MAX(0, i-1);
			int i_p_1 = MIN(width-1, i+1);
			int j_m_1 = MAX(0, j-1);
			int j_p_1 = MIN(height-1, j+1);

			int ne = (j_m_1 * width + i_m_1);
			int n_ = (j_m_1 * width + i    );
			int nw = (j_m_1 * width + i_p_1);
			int _e = (j     * width + i_m_1);
			int me = (j     * width + i    );
			int _w = (j     * width + i_p_1);
			int se = (j_p_1 * width + i_m_1);
			int s_ = (j_p_1 * width + i    );
			int sw = (j_p_1 * width + i_p_1);

			//place the values in the array
			sortArray[0] = pixelsMedian1[ne];
			sortArray[1] = pixelsMedian1[n_];
			sortArray[2] = pixelsMedian1[nw];
			sortArray[3] = pixelsMedian1[_e];
			sortArray[4] = pixelsMedian1[me];
			sortArray[5] = pixelsMedian1[_w];
			sortArray[6] = pixelsMedian1[se];
			sortArray[7] = pixelsMedian1[s_];
			sortArray[8] = pixelsMedian1[sw];

			qsort(sortArray, 9, sizeof(int), compare);

			int newValue = sortArray[4];

			if (newValue < 0) newValue = 0;
			if (newValue > 255) newValue = 255;

			pixelsMedian1[pixIndex]  = newValue;
		}
	}

	texture3.loadData(pixelsMedian1, width, height, GL_LUMINANCE);