PC Geek Question - Video Card - x800 xt vs. geforce 8400 GS

[Endo]

I'm running an 256mb in x800 XT and I just bough my son a 256 mb 8400 GS for only $19.99 as an upgrade. His PC is about the same speed as mine, maybe a little slower. Both are PCI-E x16.

If you look at the specs, it looks like my card would be faster:

http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=41&card2=529

but I was amazed at how smooth his graphics as well as the overall asthetics which are superior IMO......it seems to be a better card to the eye, but the specs seem to indicate otherwise. Now I'm wondering if I should ebay my radeon and get the geforce for that cheap price.

I don't understand half of the specs on this comparison site. I saw that his card is 3 years newer, but it looks like the clock speeds etc are less in the 8400.

Is there something I'm missing?

Which of the two is the better card?

[losdog]

just looking at the specs I too go to clock speed but also memory bandwidth. the difference here is that the 800 has a faster bandwidth than the 8000 so it is odd that things look better with the 8000 than your 800. before you get rid of yours and buy another, put his card into your machine and see how it looks. drive before you buy!

[Pilotman28]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card,2118.html

that'll tell you what is the best for the money.