GeForce 9400 GT 256MB vs Radeon HD 4550 512MB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 4550 512MB, which has a core clock speed of 600 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 800 MHz. It also makes use of a 64-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 55 nm design. It is comprised of 80(16x5) SPUs, 8 Texture Address Units, and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 4550 512MB		25 Watts
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		50 Watts
	Difference: 25 Watts (100%)

Memory Bandwidth

Both cards have the exact same memory bandwidth, so theoretically they should perform the same. (explain)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 4550 512MB will be a small bit (approximately 9%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB. (explain)

Radeon HD 4550 512MB		4800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		4400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 400 (9%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 4550 512MB will be a bit (approximately 9%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB, and also able to handle higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

Radeon HD 4550 512MB		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

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core 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 rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.