GeForce 8400 GS 512MB vs Radeon HD 6950

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon HD 6950, which comes with GPU core speed of 800 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR5 RAM running at 1250 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is comprised of 1408 SPUs, 88 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		40 Watts
Radeon HD 6950		200 Watts
	Difference: 160 Watts (400%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon HD 6950 should be much faster than the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 6950		160000 MB/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		6400 MB/sec
	Difference: 153600 (2400%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 6950 should be quite a bit (more or less 1254%) better at AF than the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB. (explain)

Radeon HD 6950		70400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		5200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 65200 (1254%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high screen resolution is important to you, then the Radeon HD 6950 is superior to the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB, by far. (explain)

Radeon HD 6950		25600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		2600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 23000 (885%)

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 maximum amount of information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high 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 number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the graphics 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 most pixels the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.