GeForce 8400 GS 512MB vs GeForce GT 430 1GB

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GT 430 1GB, which comes with a core clock frequency of 700 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 900 MHz. It also features a 128-bit bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It is made up of 96 SPUs, 16 TAUs, and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		40 Watts
GeForce GT 430 1GB		60 Watts
	Difference: 20 Watts (50%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GT 430 1GB should be much faster than the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GT 430 1GB		28800 MB/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		6400 MB/sec
	Difference: 22400 (350%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 430 1GB will be much (more or less 115%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GT 430 1GB		11200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		5200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 6000 (115%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GT 430 1GB is superior to the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB, not by a very large margin though. (explain)

GeForce GT 430 1GB		2800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		2600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 200 (8%)

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 largest amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.