GeForce 9800 GTX vs GeForce GT 340 1GB

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GT 340 1GB, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 550 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM is set to run at a frequency of 850 MHz on this model. It features 96 SPUs along with 32 Texture Address Units and 8 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 340 1GB		69 Watts
GeForce 9800 GTX		140 Watts
	Difference: 71 Watts (103%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce 9800 GTX should be much faster than the GeForce GT 340 1GB in general. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX		70400 MB/sec
GeForce GT 340 1GB		54400 MB/sec
	Difference: 16000 (29%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GTX should be a lot (approximately 145%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GT 340 1GB. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX		43200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 340 1GB		17600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 25600 (145%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GTX should be quite a bit (approximately 145%) faster with regards to anti-aliasing than the GeForce GT 340 1GB, and capable of handling higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX		10800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 340 1GB		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 6400 (145%)

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 (measured in MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. 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 high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card could possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.