GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB vs GeForce GT 420

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GT 420, which has a clock speed of 700 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 900 MHz. It also makes use of a 128-bit bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It features 48 SPUs, 8 TAUs, and 4 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 420		50 Watts
GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB		70 Watts
	Difference: 20 Watts (40%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB should theoretically be quite a bit better than the GeForce GT 420 in general. (explain)

GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB		54400 MB/sec
GeForce GT 420		28800 MB/sec
	Difference: 25600 (89%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB should be much (approximately 214%) better at AF than the GeForce GT 420. (explain)

GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB		17600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 420		5600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 12000 (214%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB is much (about 57%) more effective at AA than the GeForce GT 420, and also able to handle higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB		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: Memory bandwidth is the largest 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 bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the video card can possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.