GeForce 8400 GS 512MB vs GeForce GTS 450 1GB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTS 450 1GB, which features clock speeds of 783 MHz on the GPU, and 902 MHz on the 1024 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 192 SPUs along with 32 Texture Address Units and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		40 Watts
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		106 Watts
	Difference: 66 Watts (165%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTS 450 1GB should in theory be a lot better than the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		57728 MB/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		6400 MB/sec
	Difference: 51328 (802%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 450 1GB should be quite a bit (about 382%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		25056 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		5200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 19856 (382%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTS 450 1GB is a better choice, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		12528 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		2600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 9928 (382%)

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 data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total number of 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 per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the clock 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 is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.