GeForce 8400 GS 512MB vs GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3, which features a clock frequency of 550 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 800 MHz. It also makes use of a 128-bit bus, and uses a 55 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 1GB GDDR3		50 Watts
	Difference: 10 Watts (25%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3 should be 300% quicker than the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB overall, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3		25600 MB/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		6400 MB/sec
	Difference: 19200 (300%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3 will be much (approximately 69%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB. (explain)

GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3		8800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		5200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 3600 (69%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3 should be quite a bit (about 69%) better at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB, and also able to handle higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3		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: Bandwidth is the max amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses 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 high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the video card can possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated 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 filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.