GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB vs Radeon HD 7870 XT

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon HD 7870 XT, which makes use of a 28 nm design. AMD has clocked the core speed at 925 MHz. The GDDR5 memory works at a frequency of 1500 MHz on this particular model. It features 1536 SPUs as well as 96 Texture Address Units and 32 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB		70 Watts
Radeon HD 7870 XT		185 Watts
	Difference: 115 Watts (164%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the Radeon HD 7870 XT should in theory be quite a bit better than the GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB in general. (explain)

Radeon HD 7870 XT		192000 MB/sec
GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB		54400 MB/sec
	Difference: 137600 (253%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 7870 XT is quite a bit (about 405%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB. (explain)

Radeon HD 7870 XT		88800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB		17600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 71200 (405%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the Radeon HD 7870 XT is the winner, by far. (explain)

Radeon HD 7870 XT		29600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 25200 (573%)

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 (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card could possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock 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 rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.