GeForce 8400 GS 512MB vs GeForce GTX 980M

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 980M, which features a GPU core clock speed of 1038 MHz, and 4096 MB of GDDR5 RAM set to run at 1000 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also features 1536 SPUs, 96 Texture Address Units, and 64 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		40 Watts
GeForce GTX 980M		100 Watts
	Difference: 60 Watts (150%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 980M is 1900% quicker than the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB overall, because of its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980M		128000 MB/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		6400 MB/sec
	Difference: 121600 (1900%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 980M should be much (more or less 1816%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980M		99648 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		5200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 94448 (1816%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 980M will be a lot (about 2455%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB, and will be capable of handling higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980M		66432 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		2600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 63832 (2455%)

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 maximum amount of information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR RAM, it must 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 anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka 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, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.