GeForce 9400 GT 256MB vs Radeon HD 5450

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 5450, which uses a 40 nm design. AMD has clocked the core frequency at 650 MHz. The DDR3 memory runs at a frequency of 800 MHz on this specific card. It features 80(16x5) SPUs along with 8 TAUs and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 5450		19 Watts
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		50 Watts
	Difference: 31 Watts (163%)

Memory Bandwidth

Both cards have the exact same memory bandwidth, so in theory they should have identical performance. (explain)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 5450 will be a bit (approximately 18%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB. (explain)

Radeon HD 5450		5200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		4400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 800 (18%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 5450 will be a bit (about 18%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB, and able to handle higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

Radeon HD 5450		2600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		2200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 400 (18%)

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 information (counted in MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster 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 applied per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on quite a few 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.