GeForce 9400 GT 256MB vs Radeon HD 5450

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon HD 5450, which has a clock frequency of 650 MHz and a DDR3 memory speed of 800 MHz. It also uses a 64-bit memory bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It features 80(16x5) SPUs, 8 Texture Address Units, and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 5450		19 Watts
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		50 Watts
	Difference: 31 Watts (163%)

Memory Bandwidth

Both cards have the exact same bandwidth, so in theory they should have the same performance. (explain)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 5450 should be a little bit (approximately 18%) better at AF than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB. (explain)

Radeon HD 5450		5200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		4400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 800 (18%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 5450 will be a bit (about 18%) better at FSAA than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB, and should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

Radeon HD 5450		2600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		2200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 400 (18%)

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 (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, 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 chip can possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.