GeForce 8400 GS 512MB vs GeForce GT 240 GDDR5

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GT 240 GDDR5, which has core clock speeds of 550 MHz on the GPU, and 850 MHz on the 512 MB of GDDR5 RAM. It features 96 SPUs as well as 32 TAUs and 8 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		40 Watts
GeForce GT 240 GDDR5		70 Watts
	Difference: 30 Watts (75%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 should in theory be a lot faster than the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB overall. (explain)

GeForce GT 240 GDDR5		54400 MB/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		6400 MB/sec
	Difference: 48000 (750%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 is a lot (approximately 238%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GT 240 GDDR5		17600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		5200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 12400 (238%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 is the winner, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GT 240 GDDR5		4400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		2600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1800 (69%)

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 information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better 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 can be processed per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.