GeForce 9400 GT 256MB vs GeForce GTX 980M

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 980M, which makes use of a 28 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 1038 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM is set to run at a speed of 1000 MHz on this particular model. It features 1536 SPUs as well as 96 Texture Address Units and 64 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		50 Watts
GeForce GTX 980M		100 Watts
	Difference: 50 Watts (100%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 980M, in theory, should perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980M		128000 MB/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 115200 (900%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 980M will be quite a bit (about 2165%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980M		99648 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		4400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 95248 (2165%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 980M will be quite a bit (approximately 2920%) better at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB, and able to handle higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980M		66432 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		2200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 64232 (2920%)

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 (counted in MB 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. In the case of DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the better 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 in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the 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 could possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.