GeForce 9800 GT 512MB vs GeForce GT 340

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GT 340, which features clock speeds of 550 MHz on the GPU, and 850 MHz on the 512 MB of GDDR5 RAM. 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 340		69 Watts
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		105 Watts
	Difference: 36 Watts (52%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce 9800 GT 512MB should theoretically be a little bit better than the GeForce GT 340 in general. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
GeForce GT 340		54400 MB/sec
	Difference: 3200 (6%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GT 512MB will be quite a bit (more or less 91%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce GT 340. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 340		17600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 16000 (91%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GT 512MB should be quite a bit (more or less 118%) more effective at AA than the GeForce GT 340, and should be capable of handling higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		9600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 340		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 5200 (118%)

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 largest amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type memory, the result 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 anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card could possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate 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 output rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.