NVIDIA GeForce 9400M (G)
The Nvidia GeForce 9400M G is an integrated (onboard) graphics card for laptops without dedicated graphics memory. The card was introduced in October 2008 in conjunction with the new Apple MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air products (called only 9400M). At the time of announcement it was the fastest mGPU (motherboard GPU) on the market.
The performance of the 9400M G is comparable to current entry level GPUs with dedicated graphics memory (like the GeForce 9300M GS).Therefore, the graphics adapater is able to display older games (like Doom3) in high details fluently and new (not too demanding games) in low details fluently. Warhammer Online should for example run on the 2.4 GHz MacBook fluently. Compared to the predecessor in the MacBook, the Intel GMA X3100, the GeForce 9400M should perform 5x better.
Because of the shared memory (the memory is reserved from the main memory), the graphics adapter performs significantly better with DDR3 main memory than with DDR2 (up to 33% more performance).
The current consumption of the mGPU is with a maximum of 12 Watt TDP (for the whole chipset (north- and southbridge are integrated) on par with the current Intel GMA X4500MHD (Centrino 2).
The chipset supports Hybrid-SLI (HybridPower) in conjunction with some GeForce 9x00M cards like the 9600M GT. HybridPower is a technique to choose between the integrated and dedicated graphics core, if performance or battery runtime is needed. Up to now the user has to use a tool to switch between the GPUs. (in Windows Vista, XP is not supported and MacOs needs a reboot according to Nvidia - at time of announcement). GeForceBoost to boost the performance (using SLI) is not supported in the MacBook Pro.
As the 9500M G, the 9400M features 16 stream processors that do the work of the former dedicated pixel- and vertex-shaders. The unified shaders of Nvidia are 1-dimensional (AMD has 5-dimensional shaders which leads to the higher number of shaders).
The MCP79MX (codename of the GeForce 9400M) can help the CPU in decoding HD videos. It features the PureVideo HD engine (VP3 video processor). Furthermore, the chip can be programmed using CUDA and can accellerate some operations in Photoshop CS4.
At the same time the desktop 9300 and 9400 mGPU was presented, which should perform simillarly (the laptop chipset 9400M should perform a bit lower than the 9300).
| Manufacturer | NVIDIA |
| Series | GeForce 9000M |
| Codename | MCP79MX |
| Pipelines | 16 - unified |
| Core Speed * | 450 MHz |
| Shader Speed * | 1100 MHz |
| Memory Speed * | |
| Memory Bus Width | |
| Memory Type | |
| Max. Amount of Memory | |
| Shared Memory | yes 256 MB (Apple) |
| DirectX | DirectX 10.0, Shader 4.0 |
| Current Consumption | 12 Watt |
| Transistors | 282 Million |
| technology | 65 nm |
| Features | PureVideo HD VP3 |
| Notebook Size | small and light |
| Date of Announcement | 14.10.2008 |
| Link to Manufacturer Page | http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_gef... |
benchmarks
3DMark 2001: - Standard 1024x768
0% 
100%
min: 13845, avg: 13845, max: 13845 Points ... More Details
3DMark 03: - Standard 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 5759, avg: 5759, max: 5759 Points ... More Details
3DMark 05: - Standard 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 3238, avg: 3692, max: 3930 Points ... More Details
3DMark 06:
0% 100%
min: 1916, avg: 2039, max: 2148 Points ... More Details
Crysis - CPU Benchmark: - Low 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 28.3, avg: 29, max: 30 fps ... More Details
Crysis - CPU Benchmark: - High 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 5.4, avg: 5, max: 5.4 fps ... More Details
Cinebench R10: - Shading
0% 100%
min: 3006, avg: 3477, max: 4402 Points ... More Details
F.E.A.R.: - GPU min, CPU min 640x480
0% 100%
min: 222, avg: 222, max: 222 fps ... More Details
F.E.A.R.: - GPU medium, CPU medium 800x600
0% 100%
min: 60, avg: 60, max: 60 fps ... More Details
F.E.A.R.: - GPU: max, CPU: max 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 15, avg: 15, max: 15 fps ... More Details
Doom 3: - Low 640x480
0% 100%
min: 86.3, avg: 86, max: 86.3 fps ... More Details
Doom 3: - Medium 800x600
0% 100%
min: 83.6, avg: 84, max: 83.6 fps ... More Details
Doom 3: - High 800x600
0% 100%
min: 84.1, avg: 84, max: 84.1 fps ... More Details
Doom 3: - Ultra 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 83.3, avg: 83, max: 83.3 fps ... More Details
- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card - Average benchmark values for this graphics cardBased on 23 benchmarks
| 3DMark 05 in comparison | ||
| Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 500 (min) | 137 | |
| ... | ||
| NVIDIA Quadro NVS 160M | 3587 | |
| NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GT | 3587 | |
| ATI Mobility FireGL V5200 | 3629 | |
| NVIDIA GeForce 9400M (G) | 3692 | |
| ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 | 3708 | |
| NVIDIA GeForce Go 7800 | 3800 | |
| ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470 | 3854 | |
| ... | ||
| ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4870 X2 (max) | 19550 | |
Game Performance
The following benchmarks should give a rough impression on the gaming capabilities of the 9400M graphics card. The values can vary according to the used CPU and main memory (especially using DDR2 instead of DDR3 main memory).
Crysis: 1024x768, med: 13 fps -> not playable
World in Conflict: 1024x768, med: 11 fps -> not playable (with min. details playable)
Warhammer Online: according to a YouTube video fluently playable with good details
Spore: 1280x800, max -> many pop-ins, in lower detailsettings playable
Notebook reviews with NVIDIA GeForce 9400M (G) graphics card
Apple MacBook Aluminium (Intel Core 2 Duo P8600, 13.3")
» Review Apple MacBook Aluminium (Unibody, 13", 9400M) - Review
» Review Update Apple MacBook Aluminium (Unibody, 13", 9400M) - Review
» Review Apple MacBook Aluminum 2.0 GHz (Unibody, 13", 9400M, P7350) - Review
» Apple Macbook Aluminium - External Review
Apple MacBook Pro 13 inch (06/09) (Intel Core 2 Duo P8400, 13.3")
» Apple MacBook Pro 13 inch (06/09) - External Review
Apple MacBook White 2009-03 (Intel Core 2 Duo P7350, 13.3")
» Apple MacBook White 2009-03 - External Review
Apple MacBook White 2009/05 (Intel Core 2 Duo P7450, 13.3")
» Review Apple MacBook White 5.2 Mid 2009 - Review
» Apple MacBook White 2009/05 - External Review
Axiotron Modbook (Intel Core 2 Duo T7500, 13.3")
» Axiotron Modbook - External Review
Dell Studio XPS SX13-163B (Intel Core 2 Duo P8600, 13.3")
» Dell Studio XPS SX13-163B - External Review
MSI Megabook VR705 (Intel Core 2 Duo T5800, 17.0")
» MSI Megabook VR705 - External Review
MSI X-Slim X320 (Intel Atom Z530, 13.4")
» MSI X-Slim X320 - External Review
