GeForce 8400 GS 512MB vs Radeon HD 6950

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 6950, which uses a 40 nm design. AMD has set the core speed at 800 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM works at a frequency of 1250 MHz on this card. It features 1408 SPUs as well as 88 TAUs and 32 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		40 Watts
Radeon HD 6950		200 Watts
	Difference: 160 Watts (400%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the Radeon HD 6950 should theoretically be a lot superior to the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB in general. (explain)

Radeon HD 6950		160000 MB/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		6400 MB/sec
	Difference: 153600 (2400%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 6950 is a lot (approximately 1254%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB. (explain)

Radeon HD 6950		70400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		5200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 65200 (1254%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 6950 will be a lot (about 885%) better at FSAA than the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB, and should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

Radeon HD 6950		25600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		2600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 23000 (885%)

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 (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it must 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 anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip could possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount 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 filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.