GeForce 8800 GTX vs GeForce 9400 GT 256MB

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB, which has a GPU core clock speed of 550 MHz, and 256 MB of GDDR2 RAM set to run at 400 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is made up of 16 Stream Processors, 8 Texture Address Units, and 4 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		50 Watts
GeForce 8800 GTX		155 Watts
	Difference: 105 Watts (210%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce 8800 GTX is 575% faster than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB overall, because of its greater bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTX		86400 MB/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 73600 (575%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GTX should be much (more or less 736%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTX		36800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		4400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 32400 (736%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GTX will be much (approximately 527%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB, and also able to handle higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTX		13800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		2200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 11600 (527%)

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 largest amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, 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 per 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 card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.