GeForce 9400 GT 256MB vs GeForce GTX 560

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 560, which has GPU clock speed of 810 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR5 memory set to run at 1001 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is made up of 336 Stream Processors, 56 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		50 Watts
GeForce GTX 560		150 Watts
	Difference: 100 Watts (200%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce GTX 560 should perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560		128128 MB/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 115328 (901%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 560 is quite a bit (approximately 931%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560		45360 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		4400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 40960 (931%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 560 is a better choice, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560		25920 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		2200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 23720 (1078%)

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 data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster 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 per second. This is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the video card can possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.