GeForce GT 220 GDDR3 vs GeForce GT 340

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GT 340, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 550 MHz. The GDDR5 memory is set to run at a frequency of 850 MHz on this specific model. It features 96 SPUs along with 32 Texture Address Units and 8 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 220 GDDR3		58 Watts
GeForce GT 340		69 Watts
	Difference: 11 Watts (19%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GT 340 should theoretically be much better than the GeForce GT 220 GDDR3 in general. (explain)

GeForce GT 340		54400 MB/sec
GeForce GT 220 GDDR3		32384 MB/sec
	Difference: 22016 (68%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 340 should be quite a bit (more or less 76%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GT 220 GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce GT 340		17600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 220 GDDR3		10000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 7600 (76%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GT 220 GDDR3 is a better choice, but it probably won't make a huge difference. (explain)

GeForce GT 220 GDDR3		5000 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 340		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 600 (14%)

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: Memory bandwidth is the max amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the better 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 processed in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the 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 can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.