GeForce 8800 GT 512MB vs GeForce GT 340

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GT 340, which has core speeds of 550 MHz on the GPU, and 850 MHz on the 512 MB of GDDR5 RAM. It features 96 SPUs as well as 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		69 Watts
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		105 Watts
	Difference: 36 Watts (52%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB should be 6% faster than the GeForce GT 340 in general, due to its greater bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
GeForce GT 340		54400 MB/sec
	Difference: 3200 (6%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GT 512MB should be much (approximately 91%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce GT 340. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 340		17600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 16000 (91%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB is a better choice, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce 8800 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: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip 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 Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.