GeForce 9400 GT 256MB vs Radeon R9 M385X

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon R9 M385X, which uses a 28 nm design. AMD has clocked the core frequency at 1100 MHz. The GDDR5 memory is set to run at a frequency of 1500 MHz on this specific card. It features 896 SPUs as well as 56 Texture Address Units and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Radeon R9 M385X should be quite a bit faster than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB in general. (explain)

Radeon R9 M385X		96000 MB/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 83200 (650%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 M385X will be much (more or less 1300%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB. (explain)

Radeon R9 M385X		61600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		4400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 57200 (1300%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon R9 M385X is a lot (about 700%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB, and also able to handle higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

Radeon R9 M385X		17600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		2200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 15400 (700%)

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 (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one 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 texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

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