GeForce 9400 GT 256MB vs Radeon HD 4850 1GB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 4850 1GB, which features a GPU core clock speed of 625 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR4 RAM running at 993 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is made up of 800(160x5) Stream Processors, 40 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		50 Watts
Radeon HD 4850 1GB		110 Watts
	Difference: 60 Watts (120%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the Radeon HD 4850 1GB should in theory be quite a bit better than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 4850 1GB		63552 MB/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 50752 (397%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 4850 1GB is a lot (more or less 468%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB. (explain)

Radeon HD 4850 1GB		25000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		4400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 20600 (468%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 4850 1GB should be quite a bit (about 355%) faster with regards to AA than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB, and also able to handle higher screen resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

Radeon HD 4850 1GB		10000 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		2200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 7800 (355%)

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 max amount of information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.