GeForce 8400 GS 512MB vs GeForce 9500 GT DDR2

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2, which comes with a clock frequency of 550 MHz and a DDR2 memory frequency of 500 MHz. It also uses a 128-bit memory bus, and uses a 65 nm design. It is comprised of 32 SPUs, 16 Texture Address Units, and 8 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		40 Watts
GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		50 Watts
	Difference: 10 Watts (25%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 is 150% quicker than the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB in general, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		16000 MB/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		6400 MB/sec
	Difference: 9600 (150%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 will be quite a bit (approximately 69%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB. (explain)

GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		8800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		5200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 3600 (69%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 is much (more or less 69%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB, and able to handle higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		4400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		2600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1800 (69%)

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 transported over the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total amount of 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 applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.