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GeForce 9400 GT 256MB vs GeForce 9500 GT DDR2

Intro

The GeForce 9400 GT 256MB makes use of a 65 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 550 MHz. The GDDR2 memory runs at a frequency of 400 MHz on this card. It features 16 SPUs along with 8 TAUs and 4 Rasterization Operator Units.

Compare those specs to the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2, which comes with GPU core speed of 550 MHz, and 256 MB of DDR2 RAM running at 500 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also features 32 SPUs, 16 TAUs, and 8 Raster Operation Units.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Both cards have the same power consumption.

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 should theoretically be a lot faster than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB in general. (explain)

GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 16000 MB/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB 12800 MB/sec
Difference: 3200 (25%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 will be quite a bit (approximately 100%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB. (explain)

GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 8800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB 4400 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 4400 (100%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 is superior to the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 4400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB 2200 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 2200 (100%)

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

Amazon.com

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GeForce 9500 GT DDR2

Amazon.com

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Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

Specifications

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Model GeForce 9400 GT 256MB GeForce 9500 GT DDR2
Manufacturer nVidia nVidia
Year August 2008 July 2008
Code Name G96a G96a
Memory 256 MB 256 MB
Core Speed 550 MHz 550 MHz
Memory Speed 800 MHz 1000 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 50 watts 50 watts
Bandwidth 12800 MB/sec 16000 MB/sec
Texel Rate 4400 Mtexels/sec 8800 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 2200 Mpixels/sec 4400 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 16 32
Texture Mapping Units 8 16
Render Output Units 4 8
Bus Type GDDR2 DDR2
Bus Width 128-bit 128-bit
Fab Process 65 nm 65 nm
Transistors 314 million 314 million
Bus PCIe x16 2.0, PCI PCIe x16 2.0, PCI
DirectX Version DirectX 10 DirectX 10
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 3.0

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the max amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the graphics 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 chip could possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number 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 outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.

Display Prices

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GeForce 9400 GT 256MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

GeForce 9500 GT DDR2

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

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