GeForce 8800 Ultra vs GeForce 9400 GT 256MB

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB, which comes with a core clock speed of 550 MHz and a GDDR2 memory speed of 400 MHz. It also uses a 128-bit memory bus, and uses a 65 nm design. It is comprised of 16 SPUs, 8 TAUs, and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		50 Watts
GeForce 8800 Ultra		171 Watts
	Difference: 121 Watts (242%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce 8800 Ultra should theoretically be quite a bit better than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB in general. (explain)

GeForce 8800 Ultra		103680 MB/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 90880 (710%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 Ultra is quite a bit (approximately 790%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB. (explain)

GeForce 8800 Ultra		39168 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		4400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 34768 (790%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce 8800 Ultra is a better choice, by far. (explain)

GeForce 8800 Ultra		14688 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		2200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 12488 (568%)

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 maximum amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's 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 is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the video card can possibly write to its local memory in one 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 clock speed. 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 lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.