GeForce 830M vs GeForce 9400 GT 256MB

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB, which makes use of a 65 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 550 MHz. The GDDR2 memory works at a speed of 400 MHz on this specific card. It features 16 SPUs along with 8 Texture Address Units and 4 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 830M		25 Watts
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		50 Watts
	Difference: 25 Watts (100%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce 830M should theoretically be a bit superior to the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB overall. (explain)

GeForce 830M		14400 MB/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 1600 (13%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 830M should be much (more or less 274%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB. (explain)

GeForce 830M		16464 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		4400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 12064 (274%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 830M is much (about 274%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB, and capable of handling higher resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce 830M		8232 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		2200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 6032 (274%)

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 (counted in MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

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