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GeForce 9400 GT 256MB vs GeForce GT 210

Intro

The GeForce 9400 GT 256MB has a GPU clock speed of 550 MHz, and the 256 MB of GDDR2 RAM is set to run at 400 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is made up of 16 SPUs, 8 TAUs, and 4 ROPs.

Compare that to the GeForce GT 210, which has core speeds of 589 MHz on the GPU, and 800 MHz on the 512 MB of DDR3 RAM. It features 16 SPUs as well as 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 GT 210 31 Watts
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB 50 Watts
Difference: 19 Watts (61%)

Memory Bandwidth

Both cards have the exact same bandwidth, so in theory they should perform exactly the same. (explain)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 210 will be a bit (approximately 7%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB. (explain)

GeForce GT 210 4712 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB 4400 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 312 (7%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GT 210 is a better choice, but it probably won't make a huge difference. (explain)

GeForce GT 210 2356 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB 2200 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 156 (7%)

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

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GeForce 9400 GT 256MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

GeForce GT 210

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

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Model GeForce 9400 GT 256MB GeForce GT 210
Manufacturer nVidia nVidia
Year August 2008 October 2009
Code Name G96a GT218
Memory 256 MB 512 MB
Core Speed 550 MHz 589 MHz
Memory Speed 800 MHz 1600 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 50 watts 31 watts
Bandwidth 12800 MB/sec 12800 MB/sec
Texel Rate 4400 Mtexels/sec 4712 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 2200 Mpixels/sec 2356 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 16 16
Texture Mapping Units 8 8
Render Output Units 4 4
Bus Type GDDR2 DDR3
Bus Width 128-bit 64-bit
Fab Process 65 nm 40 nm
Transistors 314 million 260 million
Bus PCIe x16 2.0, PCI PCIe 2.0
DirectX Version DirectX 10 DirectX 10.1
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 3.2

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If it uses 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 AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per 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 video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated 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 filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.

Display Prices

Hide Prices

GeForce 9400 GT 256MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

GeForce GT 210

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.

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