GeForce 8400 GS 512MB vs GeForce GT 340

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GT 340, which has a GPU core clock speed of 550 MHz, and 512 MB of GDDR5 RAM set to run at 850 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is comprised of 96 SPUs, 32 Texture Address Units, and 8 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		40 Watts
GeForce GT 340		69 Watts
	Difference: 29 Watts (73%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GT 340 should theoretically be a lot superior to the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GT 340		54400 MB/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		6400 MB/sec
	Difference: 48000 (750%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 340 will be a lot (approximately 238%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GT 340		17600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		5200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 12400 (238%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GT 340 is much (more or less 69%) more effective at FSAA than the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB, and also should be able to handle higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GT 340		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: Memory bandwidth is the largest amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the 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 could possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.