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GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB vs Radeon HD 3870 512MB

Intro

The GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB features a GPU clock speed of 550 MHz, and the 1024 MB of GDDR5 memory is set to run at 850 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is made up of 96 Stream Processors, 32 TAUs, and 8 ROPs.

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 3870 512MB, which uses a 55 nm design. AMD has set the core speed at 775 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM runs at a frequency of 900 MHz on this model. It features 320(64x5) SPUs as well as 16 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB 70 Watts
Radeon HD 3870 512MB 106 Watts
Difference: 36 Watts (51%)

Memory Bandwidth

The Radeon HD 3870 512MB, in theory, should be a small bit faster than the GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 3870 512MB 57600 MB/sec
GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB 54400 MB/sec
Difference: 3200 (6%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB is much (about 42%) faster with regards to AF than the Radeon HD 3870 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB 17600 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3870 512MB 12400 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 5200 (42%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the Radeon HD 3870 512MB is the winner, by far. (explain)

Radeon HD 3870 512MB 12400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB 4400 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 8000 (182%)

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

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GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB

Amazon.com

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Radeon HD 3870 512MB

Amazon.com

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Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

Specifications

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Model GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB Radeon HD 3870 512MB
Manufacturer nVidia AMD
Year November 2009 Nov 19, 2007
Code Name GT215 RV670 XT
Memory 1024 MB 512 MB
Core Speed 550 MHz 775 MHz
Memory Speed 3400 MHz 1800 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 70 watts 106 watts
Bandwidth 54400 MB/sec 57600 MB/sec
Texel Rate 17600 Mtexels/sec 12400 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 4400 Mpixels/sec 12400 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 96 320(64x5)
Texture Mapping Units 32 16
Render Output Units 8 16
Bus Type GDDR5 GDDR3
Bus Width 128-bit 256-bit
Fab Process 40 nm 55 nm
Transistors 289 million (Unknown) million
Bus PCIe x16 PCIe 2.0 x16/AGP 8x
DirectX Version DirectX 10.1 DirectX 10.1
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.2 OpenGL 3.0

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card 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 applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card can possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.

Display Prices

Hide Prices

GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 3870 512MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

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