GeForce 9400 GT 256MB vs Radeon HD 6970

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 6970, which makes use of a 40 nm design. AMD has clocked the core frequency at 880 MHz. The GDDR5 memory is set to run at a frequency of 1375 MHz on this specific model. It features 1536 SPUs along with 96 Texture Address Units and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		50 Watts
Radeon HD 6970		250 Watts
	Difference: 200 Watts (400%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon HD 6970 is 1275% faster than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB in general, because of its higher data rate. (explain)

Radeon HD 6970		176000 MB/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 163200 (1275%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 6970 should be a lot (about 1820%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB. (explain)

Radeon HD 6970		84480 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		4400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 80080 (1820%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 6970 should be quite a bit (more or less 1180%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB, and able to handle higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

Radeon HD 6970		28160 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		2200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 25960 (1180%)

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 (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it must 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, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.