GeForce GT 340 vs GeForce GTS 250 512MB

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTS 250 512MB, which uses a 65/55 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 738 MHz. The GDDR3 memory is set to run at a speed of 1100 MHz on this card. It features 128 SPUs as well as 64 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 340		69 Watts
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		145 Watts
	Difference: 76 Watts (110%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTS 250 512MB, in theory, should be quite a bit faster than the GeForce GT 340 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 512MB		70400 MB/sec
GeForce GT 340		54400 MB/sec
	Difference: 16000 (29%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 512MB should be quite a bit (more or less 168%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GT 340. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 512MB		47232 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 340		17600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 29632 (168%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTS 250 512MB is superior to the GeForce GT 340, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 512MB		11808 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 340		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 7408 (168%)

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 worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 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, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the card will be at handling 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 could possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as 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 potential to get to the max fill rate.