GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB vs GeForce GT 340 1GB

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GT 340 1GB, which comes with a core clock frequency of 550 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 850 MHz. It also features a 128-bit bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It features 96 SPUs, 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 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		143 Watts
	Difference: 74 Watts (107%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB should in theory be a little bit superior to the GeForce GT 340 1GB overall. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		63360 MB/sec
GeForce GT 340 1GB		54400 MB/sec
	Difference: 8960 (16%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB is quite a bit (approximately 40%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GT 340 1GB. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		24624 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 340 1GB		17600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 7024 (40%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB will be much (more or less 133%) better at AA than the GeForce GT 340 1GB, and should be able to handle higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		10260 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 340 1GB		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 5860 (133%)

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 information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This is worked out 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 graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the video card can possibly write to the local memory in a 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 - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.