GeForce 8400 GS 512MB vs GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB, which has a clock frequency of 550 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 850 MHz. It also features a 128-bit memory bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It features 96 SPUs, 32 Texture Address Units, and 8 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		40 Watts
GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB		70 Watts
	Difference: 30 Watts (75%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB should be much faster than the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB		54400 MB/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		6400 MB/sec
	Difference: 48000 (750%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB is a lot (approximately 238%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB		17600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		5200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 12400 (238%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB will be a lot (approximately 69%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB, and should be able to handle higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB		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 max amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the better 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.