GeForce 9400 GT 256MB vs GeForce GT 430 1GB

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GT 430 1GB, which has clock speeds of 700 MHz on the GPU, and 900 MHz on the 1024 MB of GDDR3 memory. It features 96 SPUs as well as 16 TAUs and 4 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		50 Watts
GeForce GT 430 1GB		60 Watts
	Difference: 10 Watts (20%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GT 430 1GB is 125% faster than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB in general, because of its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GT 430 1GB		28800 MB/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 16000 (125%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 430 1GB should be quite a bit (approximately 155%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB. (explain)

GeForce GT 430 1GB		11200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		4400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 6800 (155%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GT 430 1GB will be a lot (more or less 27%) faster with regards to AA than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB, and capable of handling higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GT 430 1GB		2800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		2200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 600 (27%)

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 max amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR 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 calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the graphics 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 maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.