GeForce GT 420 vs GeForce GTS 150

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTS 150, which comes with a clock speed of 740 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 500 MHz. It also uses a 256-bit bus, and makes use of a 55 nm design. It is comprised of 128 SPUs, 64 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 420		50 Watts
GeForce GTS 150		141 Watts
	Difference: 91 Watts (182%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTS 150 will be 11% quicker than the GeForce GT 420 overall, due to its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTS 150		32000 MB/sec
GeForce GT 420		28800 MB/sec
	Difference: 3200 (11%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 150 is a lot (about 746%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GT 420. (explain)

GeForce GTS 150		47360 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 420		5600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 41760 (746%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTS 150 will be much (about 323%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GT 420, and capable of handling higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTS 150		11840 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 420		2800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 9040 (323%)

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 megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one 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 higher this number, 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 that the graphics chip could possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.