GeForce 9400 GT 256MB vs GeForce GT 1030

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GT 1030, which uses a 16 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 1265 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM runs at a frequency of 1502 MHz on this card. It features 384 SPUs as well as 32 Texture Address Units and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 1030		30 Watts
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		50 Watts
	Difference: 20 Watts (67%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce GT 1030 should perform a lot faster than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GT 1030		49152 MB/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 36352 (284%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 1030 is quite a bit (more or less 820%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB. (explain)

GeForce GT 1030		40480 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		4400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 36080 (820%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GT 1030 is superior to the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GT 1030		20240 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		2200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 18040 (820%)

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 data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be 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 better this number, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.