GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512 vs GeForce GT 340

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GT 340, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 550 MHz. The GDDR5 memory runs at a frequency of 850 MHz on this specific card. It features 96 SPUs along with 32 TAUs and 8 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 340		69 Watts
GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512		84 Watts
	Difference: 15 Watts (22%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GT 340 should in theory be a lot better than the GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512 in general. (explain)

GeForce GT 340		54400 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512		16000 MB/sec
	Difference: 38400 (240%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512 is much (approximately 50%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GT 340. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512		26400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 340		17600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 8800 (50%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512 should be a lot (about 50%) better at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GT 340, and also will be capable of handling higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512		6600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 340		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2200 (50%)

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 maximum amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.