GeForce 9600 GT 512MB vs GeForce GT 240 GDDR5

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GT 240 GDDR5, which has GPU core speed of 550 MHz, and 512 MB of GDDR5 RAM set to run at 850 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is comprised of 96 SPUs, 32 TAUs, and 8 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 240 GDDR5		70 Watts
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		95 Watts
	Difference: 25 Watts (36%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce 9600 GT 512MB should theoretically be just a bit superior to the GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 overall. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
GeForce GT 240 GDDR5		54400 MB/sec
	Difference: 3200 (6%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GT 512MB is a little bit (about 18%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GT 240 GDDR5. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		20800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 240 GDDR5		17600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 3200 (18%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GT 512MB is a lot (more or less 136%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GT 240 GDDR5, and will be capable of handling higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 240 GDDR5		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 6000 (136%)

Please note that the above 'benchmarks' are all just theoretical - the results were calculated based on the card's specifications, and real-world performance may (and probably will) vary at least a bit.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the largest amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.