NVIDIA GeForce 9300 GE
NVIDIA graphics card specifications and benchmark scores
At a Glance
NVIDIANVIDIA GeForce 9300 GE Specifications
GeForce 9300 GE GPU Core
Shader units and compute resources
The NVIDIA GeForce 9300 GE GPU core specifications define its raw processing power for graphics and compute workloads. Shading units (also called CUDA cores, stream processors, or execution units depending on manufacturer) handle the parallel calculations required for rendering. TMUs (Texture Mapping Units) process texture data, while ROPs (Render Output Units) handle final pixel output. Higher shader counts generally translate to better GPU benchmark performance, especially in demanding games and 3D applications.
9300 GE Clock Speeds
GPU and memory frequencies
Clock speeds directly impact the GeForce 9300 GE's performance in GPU benchmarks and real-world gaming. The base clock represents the minimum guaranteed frequency, while the boost clock indicates peak performance under optimal thermal conditions. Memory clock speed affects texture loading and frame buffer operations. The GeForce 9300 GE by NVIDIA dynamically adjusts frequencies based on workload, temperature, and power limits to maximize performance while maintaining stability.
NVIDIA's GeForce 9300 GE Memory
VRAM capacity and bandwidth
VRAM (Video RAM) is dedicated memory for storing textures, frame buffers, and shader data. The GeForce 9300 GE's memory capacity determines how well it handles high-resolution textures and multiple displays. Memory bandwidth, measured in GB/s, affects how quickly data moves between the GPU and VRAM. Higher bandwidth improves performance in memory-intensive scenarios like 4K gaming. The memory bus width and type (GDDR6, GDDR6X, HBM) significantly influence overall GPU benchmark scores.
GeForce 9300 GE by NVIDIA Cache
On-chip cache hierarchy
On-chip cache provides ultra-fast data access for the 9300 GE, reducing the need to fetch data from slower VRAM. L1 and L2 caches store frequently accessed data close to the compute units. AMD's Infinity Cache (L3) dramatically increases effective bandwidth, improving GPU benchmark performance without requiring wider memory buses. Larger cache sizes help maintain high frame rates in memory-bound scenarios and reduce power consumption by minimizing VRAM accesses.
9300 GE Theoretical Performance
Compute and fill rates
Theoretical performance metrics provide a baseline for comparing the NVIDIA GeForce 9300 GE against other graphics cards. FP32 (single-precision) performance, measured in TFLOPS, indicates compute capability for gaming and general GPU workloads. FP64 (double-precision) matters for scientific computing. Pixel and texture fill rates determine how quickly the GPU can render complex scenes. While real-world GPU benchmark results depend on many factors, these specifications help predict relative performance levels.
Tesla Architecture & Process
Manufacturing and design details
The NVIDIA GeForce 9300 GE is built on NVIDIA's Tesla architecture, which defines how the GPU processes graphics and compute workloads. The manufacturing process node affects power efficiency, thermal characteristics, and maximum clock speeds. Smaller process nodes pack more transistors into the same die area, enabling higher performance per watt. Understanding the architecture helps predict how the 9300 GE will perform in GPU benchmarks compared to previous generations.
NVIDIA's GeForce 9300 GE Power & Thermal
TDP and power requirements
Power specifications for the NVIDIA GeForce 9300 GE determine PSU requirements and thermal management needs. TDP (Thermal Design Power) indicates the heat output under typical loads, guiding cooler selection. Power connector requirements ensure adequate power delivery for stable operation during demanding GPU benchmarks. The suggested PSU wattage accounts for the entire system, not just the graphics card. Efficient power delivery enables the GeForce 9300 GE to maintain boost clocks without throttling.
GeForce 9300 GE by NVIDIA Physical & Connectivity
Dimensions and outputs
Physical dimensions of the NVIDIA GeForce 9300 GE are critical for case compatibility. Card length, height, and slot width determine whether it fits in your chassis. The PCIe interface version affects bandwidth for communication with the CPU. Display outputs define monitor connectivity options, with modern cards supporting multiple high-resolution displays simultaneously. Verify these specifications against your case and motherboard before purchasing to ensure a proper fit.
NVIDIA API Support
Graphics and compute APIs
API support determines which games and applications can fully utilize the NVIDIA GeForce 9300 GE. DirectX 12 Ultimate enables advanced features like ray tracing and variable rate shading. Vulkan provides cross-platform graphics capabilities with low-level hardware access. OpenGL remains important for professional applications and older games. CUDA (NVIDIA) and OpenCL enable GPU compute for video editing, 3D rendering, and scientific applications. Higher API versions unlock newer graphical features in GPU benchmarks and games.
GeForce 9300 GE Product Information
Release and pricing details
The NVIDIA GeForce 9300 GE is manufactured by NVIDIA as part of their graphics card lineup. Release date and launch pricing provide context for comparing GPU benchmark results with competing products from the same era. Understanding the product lifecycle helps evaluate whether the GeForce 9300 GE by NVIDIA represents good value at current market prices. Predecessor and successor information aids in tracking generational improvements and planning future upgrades.
GeForce 9300 GE Benchmark Scores
No benchmark data available for this GPU.
About NVIDIA GeForce 9300 GE
The NVIDIA GeForce 9300 GE is a low-end graphics card from the GeForce 9 generation, built on the Tesla architecture with the G98 chip. It was released on May 31, 2008, and is now end-of-life. The card uses a 55 nm process from UMC, with 210 million transistors on an 80 mm² die. It features 8 shading units, 4 texture mapping units, and 4 raster output units. Memory is 256 MB of DDR2 on a 64-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 6.400 GB/s. The card supports PCIe 2.0 x16 and outputs via DVI, HDMI, and VGA. No benchmark scores are listed in the database, but its percentile rank of 50 places it at the median of all GPUs tracked.
Benchmark Performance
The database provides no synthetic benchmark scores for the GeForce 9300 GE, so a direct numerical comparison with other GPUs is impossible. However, the card's percentile rank of 50 across all GPUs in the database indicates that it performs at the exact median of the entire spectrum of graphics cards, from ancient integrated solutions to modern high-end models. This median placement is consistent with a very basic, entry-level part from 2008, but it also reflects the fact that the database includes many older and weaker cards.
Looking at the raw compute metrics, the 9300 GE delivers 20.80 GFLOPS of single-precision floating-point performance. That is an extremely low figure by any modern standard, but it is also low for its own era. The pixel fill rate is 2.160 GPixel/s and the texture fill rate is 2.160 GTexel/s, both of which are modest numbers that suggest the card is designed for simple 2D rendering and light 3D workloads rather than demanding games. The shading units, TMUs, and ROPs are all in single digits, reinforcing the card's position as a multimedia and basic display adapter.
Because no rival scores are provided, we cannot state deltas or percentages relative to other cards. The only quantitative anchor is the 50th percentile, which tells us that half of all GPUs in the database perform better and half perform worse. That is a broad statement, but it is the only performance comparison the data supports. The 20.80 GFLOPS figure, when considered alongside the 256 MB VRAM and 6.400 GB/s bandwidth, paints a picture of a card that can handle Windows Aero, video playback, and very old games at low resolutions, but nothing more demanding.
Ray Tracing and Feature Set
The GeForce 9300 GE has no dedicated ray tracing cores and no tensor cores. This is expected, as the Tesla architecture predates the introduction of hardware ray tracing by more than a decade. The card's feature set is defined by its API support: it supports DirectX 11.1 with a feature level of 10_0, and OpenGL 3.3. The DirectX 11.1 support is partial, the feature level 10_0 means the card can execute DirectX 10-class shaders, but it cannot use the full DirectX 11 feature set such as tessellation or compute shaders. In practice, this limits the card to games and applications designed for DirectX 9 or early DirectX 10.
The shading units are 8 in number, which is the core of the GPU's processing capability. With only 4 TMUs and 4 ROPs, texture filtering and pixel output are heavily constrained. The card lacks any form of hardware-accelerated ray tracing, so any ray-traced effects would have to be done in software, which would be impractically slow given the compute throughput. The absence of tensor cores means no AI-accelerated features like DLSS, which is irrelevant for a card of this vintage.
The API support is further limited by the lack of Vulkan support in the data. This means the card cannot run Vulkan-based games or applications. OpenGL 3.3 is present, but that version is from 2010 and does not include modern features like compute shaders or direct state access. Overall, the feature set is minimal and firmly rooted in the late 2000s, making the 9300 GE unsuitable for any contemporary graphics workload beyond basic desktop compositing.
Who Should Consider It
The 9300 GE is not a gaming card by any modern measure. Its 256 MB of DDR2 memory, 64-bit bus, and 6.400 GB/s bandwidth are far too low for even 720p gaming with moderate settings. The card's pixel and texture rates of 2.160 GPixel/s and 2.160 GTexel/s, respectively, would struggle to maintain playable frame rates in any 3D game released after 2005. The 20.80 GFLOPS compute performance is similarly inadequate for physics or post-processing effects.
Given these specifications, the card is only suitable for basic desktop use: web browsing, office applications, and video playback. It can drive a single display at resolutions up to 1920x1080 through its DVI or HDMI outputs, but even at that resolution, any graphical acceleration for 2D content is sufficient. For 3D, the card might handle very old titles like early Source engine games or Quake III-era games at low resolutions and minimal detail, but the experience would be poor.
The 50th percentile rank among all GPUs suggests that, while it is not the worst card in the database, it is also nowhere near capable of modern gaming. Users who need a card for legacy systems, troubleshooting, or as a basic display output for a server or HTPC might consider it, but only if the workload is strictly 2D. The lack of any benchmark scores makes it impossible to recommend specific settings, but the hardware constraints are clear: the card cannot handle high resolutions, high texture quality, or any form of anti-aliasing without severe performance degradation.
FAQ
Q: Does the GeForce 9300 GE support DirectX 12?
A: No. The card supports DirectX 11.1 with a feature level of 10_0, which is limited to DirectX 10-class features. DirectX 12 is not supported.
Q: How much memory does the 9300 GE have?
A: It has 256 MB of DDR2 memory on a 64-bit bus, with a bandwidth of 6.400 GB/s.
Q: What is the recommended power supply for this card?
A: The suggested PSU is 200 W. The card requires no power connectors, as it draws power solely from the PCIe slot.
Q: Does the card support hardware ray tracing?
A: No. It has no ray tracing cores, and the Tesla architecture does not include any hardware acceleration for ray tracing.
Q: What is the process node of the GPU?
A: The GPU is manufactured on a 55 nm process at UMC, with 210 million transistors on an 80 mm² die.
Q: Can the card output to multiple displays?
A: It has one DVI, one HDMI, and one VGA output, but only one display can be driven at a time, as the card does not support multi-monitor output.
Memory Subsystem
The memory subsystem of the GeForce 9300 GE is one of its most limiting factors. It consists of 256 MB of DDR2 memory, which is minuscule by even 2008 standards. The memory clock is 400 MHz, translating to 800 Mbps effective data rate. Combined with a 64-bit bus, the resulting bandwidth is 6.400 GB/s. This is a severe bottleneck for any 3D workload, as modern games require multiple gigabytes of VRAM and bandwidth in the hundreds of GB/s.
At 1080p, a typical game frame buffer alone can exceed 256 MB, and that does not account for textures, geometry, or render targets. The 6.400 GB/s bandwidth means that even if the GPU could process data fast enough, the memory would be unable to supply it. This limits the card to resolutions like 800x600 or 1024x768 with low detail settings, and even then, texture thrashing would occur. The 64-bit bus is half the width of even budget cards from the same era, which typically used 128-bit interfaces.
The DDR2 type is also older and slower than the GDDR3 or GDDR5 used in contemporaneous cards. The effective 800 Mbps is far below the 1.6 Gbps or higher seen on other GeForce 9 parts. For high-resolution work, the memory subsystem is simply inadequate. The card cannot handle large textures, and any application that requires more than a few hundred megabytes of VRAM will fail or run at extremely low frame rates. The pixel rate of 2.160 GPixel/s and texture rate of 2.160 GTexel/s are also tied to the memory bandwidth, so they are not independent limits.
Power and Cooling
The GeForce 9300 GE is a very low-power card, though the exact TDP is not listed in the data. The suggested power supply is only 200 W, which is a common recommendation for basic office systems of that era. The card has no power connectors, meaning it draws all its power from the PCIe 2.0 x16 slot, which provides up to 75 W. Given the modest specifications, the actual power draw is likely well under 30 W, but that figure is not provided.
The card is single-slot and requires no auxiliary cooling beyond a basic heatsink and fan. The 55 nm process and low transistor count (210 million) contribute to low heat generation. The lack of power connectors simplifies installation in any desktop with a 200 W or higher power supply. The card's dimensions are not listed, but as a single-slot design, it should fit in most cases.
The cooling solution is not specified, but given the low power draw, a passive or small active cooler would suffice. The card's power requirements are so minimal that it can be used in legacy systems with older power supplies, provided they have a PCIe x16 slot. The absence of a TDP rating in the data means we cannot quantify thermal output, but the 200 W PSU recommendation is the only power-related number available, and it indicates a very low overall system requirement.
How It Compares
The database does not provide any nearest rival information for the GeForce 9300 GE. There are no scores or deltaPct values to compare against. The only positional data is the percentile rank of 50, which places it exactly in the middle of all GPUs tracked. This is a broad comparison, but it suggests that the card is not the worst performer in the database, nor is it anywhere near the top.
The predecessor to the 9300 GE is the GeForce 8 series, and the successor is the GeForce 200 series, but no performance figures are given for those. Without specific rival data, we cannot state whether the 9300 GE is faster or slower than any particular card. The card's specifications, 8 shading units, 4 TMUs, 4 ROPs, 256 MB DDR2, and 6.400 GB/s bandwidth, are clearly entry-level, but without a direct comparison, we can only infer its standing from the percentile.
Given the 50th percentile, one could argue that the card is average when considering the entire history of GPUs, but that average is skewed by the inclusion of many very old and very weak cards. In the context of its own generation, the 9300 GE would be near the bottom, but the data does not support that specific claim. The lack of benchmark scores means that any performance ranking must rely on the percentile, which is a single, coarse measure. Therefore, the most honest statement is that the card sits at the median of the database's GPU population, with no direct rivals to provide finer granularity.
The AMD Equivalent of GeForce 9300 GE
Looking for a similar graphics card from AMD? The AMD Radeon RX 480 offers comparable performance and features in the AMD lineup.
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