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GeForce 9400 GT 256MB vs GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512

Intro

The GeForce 9400 GT 256MB has a clock frequency of 550 MHz and a GDDR2 memory frequency of 400 MHz. It also makes use of a 128-bit bus, and uses a 65 nm design. It features 16 SPUs, 8 TAUs, and 4 ROPs.

Compare all of that to the GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512, which makes use of a 65 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 550 MHz. The DDR2 memory works at a speed of 500 MHz on this card. It features 96 SPUs as well as 48 TAUs and 12 ROPs.

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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

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512 will be 25% faster than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB in general, because of its higher bandwidth. (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 a lot (approximately 500%) better at AF 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

The GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512 should be much (about 200%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB, and should be able to handle higher resolutions more effectively. (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

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GeForce 9400 GT 256MB

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GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512

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Specifications

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Model	GeForce 9400 GT 256MB	GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512
Manufacturer	nVidia	nVidia
Year	August 2008	September 2008
Code Name	G96a	G92
Memory	256 MB	512 MB
Core Speed	550 MHz	550 MHz
Memory Speed	800 MHz	1000 MHz
Power (Max TDP)	50 watts	84 watts
Bandwidth	12800 MB/sec	16000 MB/sec
Texel Rate	4400 Mtexels/sec	26400 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate	2200 Mpixels/sec	6600 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders	16	96
Texture Mapping Units	8	48
Render Output Units	4	12
Bus Type	GDDR2	DDR2
Bus Width	128-bit	128-bit
Fab Process	65 nm	65 nm
Transistors	314 million	754 million
Bus	PCIe x16 2.0, PCI	PCIe x16 2.0
DirectX Version	DirectX 10	DirectX 10
OpenGL Version	OpenGL 3.0	OpenGL 3.0

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip could possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). 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 potential to get to the max fill rate.

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