GeForce 9400 GT 256MB vs GeForce GTX 460 SE

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 460 SE, which uses a 40 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 650 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM works at a speed of 850 MHz on this specific card. It features 288 SPUs along with 48 Texture Address Units and 32 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		50 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 SE		150 Watts
	Difference: 100 Watts (200%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 460 SE will be 750% faster than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB overall, due to its greater bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		108800 MB/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 96000 (750%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 SE will be quite a bit (more or less 609%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		31200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		4400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 26800 (609%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 SE will be quite a bit (more or less 845%) more effective at FSAA than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB, and should be capable of handling higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		20800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		2200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 18600 (845%)

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 maximum amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster 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 processed per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in one second.

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