GeForce 9400 GT 256MB vs Radeon HD 4650 512MB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 4650 512MB, which has core clock speeds of 600 MHz on the GPU, and 500 MHz on the 512 MB of DDR2 RAM. It features 320(64x5) SPUs as well as 32 TAUs and 8 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		50 Watts
Radeon HD 4650 512MB		55 Watts
	Difference: 5 Watts (10%)

Memory Bandwidth

The Radeon HD 4650 512MB, in theory, should perform a lot faster than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 4650 512MB		16000 MB/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 3200 (25%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 4650 512MB will be a lot (more or less 336%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB. (explain)

Radeon HD 4650 512MB		19200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		4400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 14800 (336%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 4650 512MB will be much (more or less 118%) faster with regards to AA than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB, and will be capable of handling higher resolutions better. (explain)

Radeon HD 4650 512MB		4800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		2200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2600 (118%)

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 information (measured in MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core 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 processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.