GeForce 9400 GT 256MB vs Radeon R5 M255

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon R5 M255, which has a core clock frequency of 940 MHz and a DDR3 memory frequency of 1000 MHz. It also uses a 64-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It is comprised of 320 SPUs, 20 TAUs, and 8 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon R5 M255 is 25% quicker than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB overall, due to its greater data rate. (explain)

Radeon R5 M255		16000 MB/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 3200 (25%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R5 M255 will be quite a bit (approximately 327%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB. (explain)

Radeon R5 M255		18800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		4400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 14400 (327%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the Radeon R5 M255 is a better choice, by far. (explain)

Radeon R5 M255		7520 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		2200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 5320 (242%)

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 largest amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better 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 are processed in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. 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 also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.