GeForce 8500 GT vs GeForce 9400 GT 256MB

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB, which uses a 65 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 550 MHz. The GDDR2 RAM runs at a speed of 400 MHz on this particular model. It features 16 SPUs along with 8 Texture Address Units and 4 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8500 GT		45 Watts
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		50 Watts
	Difference: 5 Watts (11%)

Memory Bandwidth

Both cards have the exact same bandwidth, so theoretically they should have the same performance. (explain)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9400 GT 256MB is quite a bit (approximately 22%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8500 GT. (explain)

GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		4400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		3600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 800 (22%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9400 GT 256MB should be quite a bit (approximately 22%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8500 GT, and also should be capable of handling higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		2200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		1800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 400 (22%)

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 max amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the better 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at 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 can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.