GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB vs GeForce GT 310

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GT 310, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 589 MHz. The DDR2 memory is set to run at a speed of 1000 MHz on this card. It features 16 SPUs as well as 8 Texture Address Units and 4 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 310		31 Watts
GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB		70 Watts
	Difference: 39 Watts (126%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB should be 240% quicker than the GeForce GT 310 overall, due to its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB		54400 MB/sec
GeForce GT 310		16000 MB/sec
	Difference: 38400 (240%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB will be much (about 274%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce GT 310. (explain)

GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB		17600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 310		4712 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 12888 (274%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB is much (approximately 87%) faster with regards to FSAA than the GeForce GT 310, and also will be capable of handling higher screen resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB		4400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 310		2356 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2044 (87%)

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 maximum amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

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