GeForce 9400 GT 256MB vs GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512, which makes use of a 65 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 550 MHz. The DDR2 memory works at a frequency of 500 MHz on this specific card. It features 96 SPUs along with 48 TAUs and 12 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		50 Watts
GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512		84 Watts
	Difference: 34 Watts (68%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512 should perform much faster than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB overall. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512		16000 MB/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 3200 (25%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512 is quite a bit (approximately 500%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512		26400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		4400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 22000 (500%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512 is the winner, by far. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512		6600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		2200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 4400 (200%)

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 largest amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core 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 per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called 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 of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.