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GeForce 9400 GT 256MB vs Radeon HD 4550 256MB

Intro

The GeForce 9400 GT 256MB comes with core speeds of 550 MHz on the GPU, and 400 MHz on the 256 MB of GDDR2 RAM. It features 16 SPUs as well as 8 Texture Address Units and 4 ROPs.

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 4550 256MB, which features core speeds of 600 MHz on the GPU, and 800 MHz on the 256 MB of DDR3 memory. It features 80(16x5) SPUs as well as 8 Texture Address Units and 4 Rasterization Operator Units.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 4550 256MB 25 Watts
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB 50 Watts
Difference: 25 Watts (100%)

Memory Bandwidth

Both cards have exactly the same bandwidth, so in theory they should perform the same. (explain)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 4550 256MB will be a bit (approximately 9%) better at AF than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB. (explain)

Radeon HD 4550 256MB 4800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB 4400 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 400 (9%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 4550 256MB will be a small bit (approximately 9%) better at FSAA than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB, and able to handle higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

Radeon HD 4550 256MB 2400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB 2200 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 200 (9%)

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

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GeForce 9400 GT 256MB

Amazon.com

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Radeon HD 4550 256MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

Specifications

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Model GeForce 9400 GT 256MB Radeon HD 4550 256MB
Manufacturer nVidia AMD
Year August 2008 Sep 30, 2008
Code Name G96a RV710
Memory 256 MB 256 MB
Core Speed 550 MHz 600 MHz
Memory Speed 800 MHz 1600 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 50 watts 25 watts
Bandwidth 12800 MB/sec 12800 MB/sec
Texel Rate 4400 Mtexels/sec 4800 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 2200 Mpixels/sec 2400 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 16 80(16x5)
Texture Mapping Units 8 8
Render Output Units 4 4
Bus Type GDDR2 DDR3
Bus Width 128-bit 64-bit
Fab Process 65 nm 55 nm
Transistors 314 million 242 million
Bus PCIe x16 2.0, PCI PCIe 2.0 x16
DirectX Version DirectX 10 DirectX 10.1
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 3.0

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the max amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel 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.

Display Prices

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GeForce 9400 GT 256MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 4550 256MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

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