GeForce 8500 GT vs GeForce 9400 GT 256MB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB, which uses a 65 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 550 MHz. The GDDR2 RAM is set to run at a speed of 400 MHz on this specific model. It features 16 SPUs along with 8 TAUs and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8500 GT		45 Watts
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		50 Watts
	Difference: 5 Watts (11%)

Memory Bandwidth

Both cards have the exact same memory bandwidth, so theoretically they should have identical performance. (explain)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9400 GT 256MB should be quite a bit (approximately 22%) better at AF than the GeForce 8500 GT. (explain)

GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		4400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		3600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 800 (22%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB is superior to the GeForce 8500 GT, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		2200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		1800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 400 (22%)

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 transferred over the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to the local memory per 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 - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.