GeForce 830M vs GeForce 9400 GT 256MB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB, which makes use of a 65 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 550 MHz. The GDDR2 memory works at a speed of 400 MHz on this card. It features 16 SPUs along with 8 TAUs and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 830M		25 Watts
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		50 Watts
	Difference: 25 Watts (100%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce 830M should be 13% faster than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB in general, due to its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce 830M		14400 MB/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 1600 (13%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 830M will be much (more or less 274%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB. (explain)

GeForce 830M		16464 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		4400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 12064 (274%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce 830M is the winner, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce 830M		8232 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		2200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 6032 (274%)

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 largest amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 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 anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the 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 number of pixels the video card can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.