GeForce 9800 GT 512MB vs GeForce GT 320

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GT 320, which comes with a core clock frequency of 540 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 790 MHz. It also uses a 128-bit bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It features 72 SPUs, 24 Texture Address Units, and 8 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 320		43 Watts
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		105 Watts
	Difference: 62 Watts (144%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce 9800 GT 512MB should in theory perform much faster than the GeForce GT 320 overall. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
GeForce GT 320		25280 MB/sec
	Difference: 32320 (128%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GT 512MB will be quite a bit (about 159%) better at AF than the GeForce GT 320. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 320		12960 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 20640 (159%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GT 512MB is a lot (about 122%) better at AA than the GeForce GT 320, and also will be capable of handling higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		9600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 320		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 5280 (122%)

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 (in units of megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster 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 in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied per second.

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