Notebookcheck

NVIDIA GeForce 9400M (G) / ION (LE)

NVIDIA GeForce 9400M (G) / ION (LE)

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).

ManufacturerNVIDIA
GeForce 9400M Series
GeForce 9400M (G) / ION (LE) 16 @ 450 MHz
GeForce 9400M GeForceBoost (compare) 24 64 Bit
CodenameMCP79MX
Pipelines16 - unified
Core Speed450 MHz
Shader Speed1100 MHz
Shared Memoryyes
DirectXDirectX 10.0, Shader 4.0
Transistor Count282 Million
technology65 nm
FeaturesPureVideo HD VP3
Date of Announcement14.10.2008
Link to Manufacturer Pagehttp://www.nvidia.com/object/product_gef...

Benchmarks

3DMark Vantage
P Result 1280x1024 +
P GPU no PhysX 1280x1024 +
3DMark 2001SE - Standard 1024x768
min: 5439     avg: 8199.1     median: 6427 (7%)     max: 13845 Points
+ 7 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark 03 - Standard 1024x768
min: 3385     avg: 4132.1     median: 3616 (2%)     max: 5759 Points
+ 7 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark 05 - Standard 1024x768
min: 2143     avg: 3001.8     median: 2807 (5%)     max: 3930 Points
+ 13 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark 06 Standard 1280x1024 +
Windows 7 Experience Index - Gaming graphics
5.3 points (75%)
+ 3 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
Windows 7 Experience Index - Graphics
min: 3     avg: 4.3     median: 4 (57%)     max: 4 points
+ 3 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
Windows Vista Experience Index - GPU Games
5.2 Points (87%)
+ 3 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
Windows Vista Experience Index - GPU
min: 4     avg: 5.3     median: 5 (83%)     max: 5 Points
+ 3 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
Cinebench R10 Shading 32Bit +
- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card
- Average benchmark values for this graphics card
* Smaller numbers mean a higher performance

Game Benchmarks

The 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.

Anno 1404

Anno 1404

2009
low 1024x768
15.8 17 19.1 42 ~ 23 fps    + Compare
ultra 1280x1024
6.2  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Sims 3

Sims 3

2009
low 800x600
43 77 ~ 60 fps    + Compare
med. 1024x768
10 28 ~ 19 fps    + Compare
high 1280x1024
2  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
F.E.A.R. 2

F.E.A.R. 2

2009
low 800x600
19 20.7 44 ~ 28 fps    + Compare
med. 1024x768
27  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Left 4 Dead

Left 4 Dead

2008
low 640x480
64  fps    + Compare
high 1024x768
14.7 23 ~ 19 fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Far Cry 2

Far Cry 2

2008
low 640x480
36  fps    + Compare
high 1024x768
11.9  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Racedriver: GRID

Racedriver: GRID

2008
low 800x600
17 60 ~ 39 fps    + Compare
med. 1024x768
11 17 ~ 14 fps    + Compare
high 1280x1024
9  fps    + Compare
» With most tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare

Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare

2007
low 800x600
33.1 70.5 ~ 52 fps    + Compare
med. 1024x768
27.1  fps    + Compare
» With most tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Supreme Commander - FA Bench

Supreme Commander - FA Bench

2007
med. 1024x768
12.1  fps    + Compare
high 1024x768
8.9  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Crysis - GPU Benchmark

Crysis - GPU Benchmark

2007
low 1024x768
22.8 30.4 32 ~ 28 fps    + Compare
med. 1024x768
11  fps    + Compare
high 1024x768
6.3  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Additional Benchmarks
High 800x600
8.9
Low 0xAF 0xAA 800x600
28.8
Med 0xAF 0xAA 800x600
15.1
Medium 1366x768
8.7
Low 1366x768
17.7
High 1366x768
4.9
Crysis - CPU Benchmark

Crysis - CPU Benchmark

2007
low 1024x768
21.4 28.3 30 ~ 27 fps    + Compare
med. 1024x768
10.5 11.3 ~ 11 fps    + Compare
high 1024x768
5.4 5.8 ~ 6 fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Additional Benchmarks
Med 0xAF 0xAA 800x600
14.2
Low 0xAF 0xAA 800x600
29.3
High 0xAF 0xAA 800x600
7.9
Low 1366x768
17.6
Medium 1366x768
8.7
High 1366x768
4.7
World in Conflict - Benchmark

World in Conflict - Benchmark

2007
med. 1024x768
15  fps    + Compare
high 1024x768
5  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Call of Juarez Benchmark

Call of Juarez Benchmark

2006
high 1024x768
3.3  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Half Life 2 - Lost Coast Benchmark

Half Life 2 - Lost Coast Benchmark

2005
high 1024x768
42  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
F.E.A.R.

F.E.A.R.

2005
low 640x480
95 188 222 ~ 168 fps    + Compare
med. 800x600
39 53 60 ~ 51 fps    + Compare
high 1024x768
10 15 27 ~ 17 fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
Quake 4

Quake 4

2005
low 640x480
61  fps    + Compare
med. 800x600
56  fps    + Compare
high 1024x768
45  fps    + Compare
ultra 1024x768
39  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft

2005
low 800x600
54 136.9 ~ 95 fps    + Compare
med. 1024x768
41 43 ~ 42 fps    + Compare
high 1280x1024
11  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
Counter-Strike Source

Counter-Strike Source

2004
high 1024x768
35 fps 44 ~ 40 fps    + Compare
» With most tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Doom 3

Doom 3

2004
low 640x480
86.3  fps    + Compare