GeForce 8400 GS 512MB vs GeForce GTX 970

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 970, which has a GPU core clock speed of 1050 MHz, and 4096 MB of GDDR5 memory set to run at 1750 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is made up of 1664 Stream Processors, 104 Texture Address Units, and 64 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		40 Watts
GeForce GTX 970		145 Watts
	Difference: 105 Watts (263%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 970 is 3400% quicker than the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB in general, because of its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970		224000 MB/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		6400 MB/sec
	Difference: 217600 (3400%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 970 should be a lot (about 2000%) better at AF than the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970		109200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		5200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 104000 (2000%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 970 should be quite a bit (approximately 2485%) more effective at FSAA than the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB, and capable of handling higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970		67200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		2600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 64600 (2485%)

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 MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one 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 handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. 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 is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.