GeForce 9400 GT 256MB vs GeForce 940M

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce 940M, which features core speeds of 1072 MHz on the GPU, and 1000 MHz on the 2048 MB of DDR3 RAM. It features 384 SPUs along with 24 TAUs and 8 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 940M should perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB in general. (explain)

GeForce 940M		16000 MB/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 3200 (25%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 940M will be quite a bit (more or less 485%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB. (explain)

GeForce 940M		25728 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		4400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 21328 (485%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce 940M is the winner, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce 940M		8576 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		2200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 6376 (290%)

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 max amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends 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.