GeForce 8800 GTX vs GeForce 9400 GT 256MB

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB, which comes with a clock speed of 550 MHz and a GDDR2 memory speed of 400 MHz. It also makes use of a 128-bit memory bus, and uses a 65 nm design. It is comprised of 16 SPUs, 8 Texture Address Units, and 4 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		50 Watts
GeForce 8800 GTX		155 Watts
	Difference: 105 Watts (210%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 8800 GTX should be 575% quicker than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB overall, because of its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTX		86400 MB/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 73600 (575%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GTX is a lot (approximately 736%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTX		36800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		4400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 32400 (736%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GTX should be much (about 527%) faster with regards to FSAA than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB, and capable of handling higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTX		13800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		2200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 11600 (527%)

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 megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.