GeForce 9400 GT 256MB vs GeForce GT 220 GDDR3

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GT 220 GDDR3, which uses a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 625 MHz. The GDDR3 memory works at a speed of 1012 MHz on this particular model. It features 48 SPUs along with 16 Texture Address Units and 8 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		50 Watts
GeForce GT 220 GDDR3		58 Watts
	Difference: 8 Watts (16%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GT 220 GDDR3 should theoretically be a lot better than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GT 220 GDDR3		32384 MB/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 19584 (153%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 220 GDDR3 will be much (about 127%) better at AF than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB. (explain)

GeForce GT 220 GDDR3		10000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		4400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 5600 (127%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GT 220 GDDR3 is a lot (more or less 127%) better at FSAA than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB, and capable of handling higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GT 220 GDDR3		5000 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		2200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2800 (127%)

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 (in units of MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics 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 chip can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.