Compare any two graphics cards:
VS

GeForce 9400 GT 256MB vs GeForce 9800 GX2

Intro

The GeForce 9400 GT 256MB comes with core clock speeds of 550 MHz on the GPU, and 400 MHz on the 256 MB of GDDR2 RAM. It features 16 SPUs as well as 8 TAUs and 4 Rasterization Operator Units.

Compare all of that to the GeForce 9800 GX2, which features a clock frequency of 600 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 1000 MHz. It also features a 256-bit memory bus, and uses a 65 nm design. It features 128 SPUs, 64 Texture Address Units, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9400 GT 256MB 50 Watts
GeForce 9800 GX2 197 Watts
Difference: 147 Watts (294%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce 9800 GX2 should perform a lot faster than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB overall. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2 128000 MB/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB 12800 MB/sec
Difference: 115200 (900%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GX2 will be a lot (more or less 1645%) better at AF than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2 76800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB 4400 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 72400 (1645%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GX2 should be quite a bit (approximately 773%) faster with regards to FSAA than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB, and also should be able to handle higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2 19200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB 2200 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 17000 (773%)

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.

One or more cards in this comparison are multi-core. This means that their bandwidth, texel and pixel rates are theoretically doubled - this does not mean the card will actually perform twice as fast, but only that it should in theory be able to. Actual game benchmarks will give a more accurate idea of what it's capable of.

Price Comparison

Display Prices

Hide Prices

GeForce 9400 GT 256MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

GeForce 9800 GX2

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

Specifications

Display Specifications

Hide Specifications

Model GeForce 9400 GT 256MB GeForce 9800 GX2
Manufacturer nVidia nVidia
Year August 2008 Mar 2008
Code Name G96a G92
Memory 256 MB 512 MB (x2)
Core Speed 550 MHz 600 MHz (x2)
Memory Speed 800 MHz 2000 MHz (x2)
Power (Max TDP) 50 watts 197 watts
Bandwidth 12800 MB/sec 128000 MB/sec
Texel Rate 4400 Mtexels/sec 76800 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 2200 Mpixels/sec 19200 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 16 128 (x2)
Texture Mapping Units 8 64 (x2)
Render Output Units 4 16 (x2)
Bus Type GDDR2 GDDR3
Bus Width 128-bit 256-bit (x2)
Fab Process 65 nm 65 nm
Transistors 314 million 754 million
Bus PCIe x16 2.0, PCI PCIe x16 2.0
DirectX Version DirectX 10 DirectX 10
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 3.0

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the largest amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.

Display Prices

Hide Prices

GeForce 9400 GT 256MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

GeForce 9800 GX2

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

Comments

Be the first to leave a comment!

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


*

WordPress Anti Spam by WP-SpamShield