GeForce 9400 GT 256MB vs Radeon HD 3650 512MB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 3650 512MB, which comes with GPU clock speed of 725 MHz, and 512 MB of GDDR3 memory set to run at 800 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is made up of 120(24x5) SPUs, 8 Texture Address Units, and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		50 Watts
Radeon HD 3650 512MB		78 Watts
	Difference: 28 Watts (56%)

Memory Bandwidth

The Radeon HD 3650 512MB, in theory, should perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB in general. (explain)

Radeon HD 3650 512MB		25600 MB/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 12800 (100%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 3650 512MB will be quite a bit (approximately 32%) better at AF than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB. (explain)

Radeon HD 3650 512MB		5800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		4400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 1400 (32%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 3650 512MB will be a lot (approximately 32%) better at anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB, and will be able to handle higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

Radeon HD 3650 512MB		2900 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		2200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 700 (32%)

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 (measured in MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This figure is calculated 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 video 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. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.