GeForce 8800 Ultra vs GeForce 9400 GT 256MB

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB, which features clock speeds of 550 MHz on the GPU, and 400 MHz on the 256 MB of GDDR2 RAM. It features 16 SPUs along with 8 TAUs and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		50 Watts
GeForce 8800 Ultra		171 Watts
	Difference: 121 Watts (242%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 8800 Ultra will be 710% quicker than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB in general, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce 8800 Ultra		103680 MB/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 90880 (710%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 Ultra should be quite a bit (about 790%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB. (explain)

GeForce 8800 Ultra		39168 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		4400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 34768 (790%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce 8800 Ultra is a better choice, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce 8800 Ultra		14688 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		2200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 12488 (568%)

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 max amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better 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 can be processed per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, 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 maximum amount of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes 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, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.