GeForce GT 340 vs GeForce GTS 250 1GB

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTS 250 1GB, which features a clock frequency of 738 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 1100 MHz. It also features a 256-bit bus, and uses a 65/55 nm design. It is made up of 128 SPUs, 64 Texture Address Units, and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 340		69 Watts
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		145 Watts
	Difference: 76 Watts (110%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTS 250 1GB, in theory, should perform a lot faster than the GeForce GT 340 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		70400 MB/sec
GeForce GT 340		54400 MB/sec
	Difference: 16000 (29%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 1GB will be much (more or less 168%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce GT 340. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		47232 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 340		17600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 29632 (168%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTS 250 1GB is a better choice, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		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 max amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. 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 lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.