GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 vs GeForce GT 340 1GB

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GT 340 1GB, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 550 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM works at a speed of 850 MHz on this particular card. It features 96 SPUs along with 32 TAUs and 8 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		50 Watts
GeForce GT 340 1GB		69 Watts
	Difference: 19 Watts (38%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GT 340 1GB is 240% quicker than the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 overall, because of its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce GT 340 1GB		54400 MB/sec
GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		16000 MB/sec
	Difference: 38400 (240%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 340 1GB will be a lot (approximately 100%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2. (explain)

GeForce GT 340 1GB		17600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		8800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 8800 (100%)

Pixel Rate

Both cards have exactly the same pixel rate, so theoretically they should be equally good at at FSAA, and be capable of handling the same resolutions. (explain)

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 largest amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core 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 number of pixels the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the core 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 output rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.