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 9400M G graphics core is used in the MCP79 laptop chipset and in the ION platform for netbooks (which is essentially the same). The ION LE uses the same graphics core, but the DirectX support is limited to 9 (instead of 10). The clock rates of all thre platforms is identical.
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).
GeForce 9400M Series
| |||||||
| Codename | MCP79MX | ||||||
| Pipelines | 16 - unified | ||||||
| Core Speed | 450 MHz | ||||||
| Shader Speed | 1100 MHz | ||||||
| Shared Memory | yes | ||||||
| API | DirectX 10.0, Shader 4.0 | ||||||
| Power Consumption | 12 Watt | ||||||
| Transistor Count | 282 Million | ||||||
| technology | 65 nm | ||||||
| Features | PureVideo HD VP3 | ||||||
| Date of Announcement | 14.10.2008 | ||||||
| Link to Manufacturer Page | www.nvidia.com | ||||||
- Average benchmark valuesThe following benchmarks stem from our benchmarks of review laptops. The performance depends on the used graphics memory, clock rate, processor, system settings, drivers, and operating systems. So the results don't have to be representative for all laptops with this GPU. For detailed information on the benchmark results, click on the fps number.
| low | med. | high | ultra | QHD | 4K | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anno 1404 | 23 | 6.2 | ||||
| Sims 3 | 60 | 19 | 2 | |||
| F.E.A.R. 2 | 28 | 27 | ||||
| Left 4 Dead | 64 | 19 | ||||
| Far Cry 2 | 36 | 11.9 | ||||
| Racedriver: GRID | 39 | 14 | 9 | |||
| Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare | 52 | 27.1 | ||||
| Supreme Commander - FA Bench | 12.1 | 8.9 | ||||
| Crysis - GPU Benchmark | 28 | 11.02 | 6.32 | |||
| Crysis - CPU Benchmark | 27 | 11 | 6 | |||
| World in Conflict - Benchmark | 15 | 5 | ||||
| Call of Juarez Benchmark | 3.3 | |||||
| Half Life 2 - Lost Coast Benchmark | 42 | |||||
| F.E.A.R. | 168 | 51 | 17 | |||
| Quake 4 | 61 | 56 | 45 | 39 | ||
| World of Warcraft | 95 | 42 | 11 | |||
| Counter-Strike Source | 40 | |||||
| Doom 3 | 86.3 | 83.6 | 84.1 | 83.3 | ||
| Quake 3 Arena - Timedemo | 178 | |||||
| low | med. | high | ultra | QHD | 4K | < 30 fps < 60 fps < 120 fps ≥ 120 fps | 4 3 5 1 | 8 3 1 | 11 3 1 1 | 1 1 1 | | |
For more games that might be playable and a list of all games and graphics cards visit our Gaming List
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
Apple MacBook Air 13 inch 2009-06 MC234*/A: Intel Core 2 Duo SL9600, 13.30", 1.3 kg
Review » Review Apple MacBook Air - Mid 2009 (MC234*/A)
Apple MacBook Pro 13 inch 2009-06: Intel Core 2 Duo P8700, 13.30", 2 kg
Review » Review Apple MacBook Pro 13 Mid 2009 2.53 GHz
Apple MacBook White 2009-05: Intel Core 2 Duo P7450, 13.30", 2.2 kg
Review » Review Apple MacBook White 5.2 Mid 2009
Apple MacBook Aluminium: Intel Core 2 Duo P7350, 13.30", 2.1 kg
Review » Review Apple MacBook Aluminum 2.0 GHz (Unibody, 13", 9400M, P7350)
Review » Review Update Apple MacBook Aluminium (Unibody, 13", 9400M)
Review » Review Apple MacBook Aluminium (Unibody, 13", 9400M)
Fusion Garage joojoo: Intel Atom N270, 12.00", 1.1 kg
External Review » Fusion Garage joojoo
ASRock G22: Intel Celeron M 330, 12.10", 2.6 kg
External Review » ASRock G22
HP Mini 311-1000: Intel Atom N270, 11.60", 1.5 kg
External Review » HP Mini 311-1000
Asus Eee PC 1201N: Intel Atom 330, 12.10", 1.5 kg
External Review » Asus Eee PC 1201N
Apple MacBook White 2009-10 MC207D: Intel Core 2 Duo P8600, 13.30", 2.3 kg
External Review » Apple MacBook White Late 2009
Samsung N510 black: Intel Atom N270, 11.60", 1.4 kg
External Review » Samsung N510 black
HP Mini 311: Intel Atom N280, 11.60", 1.5 kg
External Review » HP Mini 311
Apple MacBook Air 13 inch 2009-06 MC234*/A: Intel Core 2 Duo SL9600, 13.30", 1.3 kg
External Review » Apple MacBook Air 2009-06 2.1 GHz MC234*/A
Asus F50GX: Intel Core 2 Duo T6400, 16.00", 2.9 kg
External Review » Asus F50GX
Dell Studio XPS 1340: Intel Core 2 Duo P8400, 13.30", 2.4 kg
External Review » Dell Studio XPS X1340
Lenovo IdeaPad S12: Intel Atom N270, 12.00", 1.6 kg
External Review » Lenovo IdeaPad S12
Axiotron Modbook: Intel Core 2 Duo T7500, 13.30", 2.5 kg
External Review » Axiotron Modbook
Apple MacBook White 2009-05: Intel Core 2 Duo P7450, 13.30", 2.2 kg
External Review » Apple MacBook White 2009/05
Apple MacBook Pro 13 inch 2009-06: Intel Core 2 Duo P8400, 13.30", 2.1 kg
External Review » Apple MacBook Pro 13 inch (06/09)
MSI Megabook VR705: Intel Core 2 Duo T5800, 17.00", 3.5 kg
External Review » MSI Megabook VR705
Apple MacBook White 2009-03: Intel Core 2 Duo P7350, 13.30", 2.3 kg
External Review » Apple MacBook White 2009-03
Dell Studio XPS SX13-163B: Intel Core 2 Duo P8600, 13.30", 2.6 kg
External Review » Dell Studio XPS SX13-163B
MSI X-Slim X320: Intel Atom Z530, 13.40", 1.7 kg
External Review » MSI X-Slim X320
Apple MacBook Aluminium: Intel Core 2 Duo P8600, 13.30", 2 kg
External Review » Apple Macbook Aluminium
» Comparison of GPUs
Detailed list of all laptop GPUs sorted by class and performance.
» Benchmark List
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» Notebook Gaming List
Playable games for each graphics card and their average FPS results.
>> Vergleich mobiler Grafikkarten
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>> Mobile Grafikkarten - Benchmarkliste
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* Approximate position of the graphics adapter
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