GeForce 9400 GT 256MB vs GeForce GTX 980

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 980, which uses a 28 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 1126 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM runs at a speed of 1750 MHz on this card. It features 2048 SPUs along with 128 TAUs and 64 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		50 Watts
GeForce GTX 980		165 Watts
	Difference: 115 Watts (230%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 980 should theoretically be much better than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980		224000 MB/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 211200 (1650%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 980 will be a lot (about 3176%) better at AF than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980		144128 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		4400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 139728 (3176%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 980 is a better choice, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980		72064 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		2200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 69864 (3176%)

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: Bandwidth is the largest amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card can possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.