GeForce 830M vs GeForce 9400 GT 256MB

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB, which makes use of a 65 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 550 MHz. The GDDR2 memory runs at a frequency of 400 MHz on this particular model. It features 16 SPUs along with 8 TAUs and 4 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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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

Performance-wise, the GeForce 830M should theoretically be just a bit superior to the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB overall. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The GeForce 830M is quite a bit (approximately 274%) better at AF than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB. (explain)

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

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 830M will be a lot (approximately 274%) faster with regards to AA than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB, and also should be able to handle higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (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: Bandwidth is the max amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip could possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core 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 rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.