GeForce 9400 GT 256MB vs Radeon HD 5870

Intro

Compare all of that to the Radeon HD 5870, which features GPU core speed of 850 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR5 RAM set to run at 1200 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is made up of 1600(320x5) SPUs, 80 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		50 Watts
Radeon HD 5870		188 Watts
	Difference: 138 Watts (276%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the Radeon HD 5870 should in theory be much better than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB in general. (explain)

Radeon HD 5870		153600 MB/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 140800 (1100%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 5870 is quite a bit (approximately 1445%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB. (explain)

Radeon HD 5870		68000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		4400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 63600 (1445%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the Radeon HD 5870 is the winner, by a large margin. (explain)

Radeon HD 5870		27200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		2200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 25000 (1136%)

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 maximum amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.