GeForce 8400 GS 512MB vs GeForce GTX 580 3GB

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 580 3GB, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 772 MHz. The GDDR5 memory works at a speed of 1002 MHz on this card. It features 512 SPUs along with 64 TAUs and 48 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		40 Watts
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		244 Watts
	Difference: 204 Watts (510%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 580 3GB should perform much faster than the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		192384 MB/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		6400 MB/sec
	Difference: 185984 (2906%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB will be much (more or less 850%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		49408 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		5200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 44208 (850%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB is a lot (about 1325%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB, and also should be able to handle higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		37056 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		2600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 34456 (1325%)

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 max amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, 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 number of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.