GeForce GT 340 vs GeForce GT 420

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GT 420, which features core clock speeds of 700 MHz on the GPU, and 900 MHz on the 2048 MB of GDDR3 RAM. It features 48 SPUs as well as 8 TAUs and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 420		50 Watts
GeForce GT 340		69 Watts
	Difference: 19 Watts (38%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce GT 340 should be much faster than the GeForce GT 420 in general. (explain)

GeForce GT 340		54400 MB/sec
GeForce GT 420		28800 MB/sec
	Difference: 25600 (89%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 340 is much (more or less 214%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GT 420. (explain)

GeForce GT 340		17600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 420		5600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 12000 (214%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GT 340 is a better choice, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GT 340		4400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 420		2800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1600 (57%)

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 MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it must 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 AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the graphics 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 amount of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.