GeForce 9600 GT 512MB vs GeForce GT 240 GDDR5

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GT 240 GDDR5, which comes with core clock speeds of 550 MHz on the GPU, and 850 MHz on the 512 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 96 SPUs along with 32 Texture Address Units and 8 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 240 GDDR5		70 Watts
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		95 Watts
	Difference: 25 Watts (36%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce 9600 GT 512MB should in theory perform a bit faster than the GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 in general. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
GeForce GT 240 GDDR5		54400 MB/sec
	Difference: 3200 (6%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GT 512MB will be just a bit (more or less 18%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GT 240 GDDR5. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		20800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 240 GDDR5		17600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 3200 (18%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GT 512MB should be quite a bit (more or less 136%) more effective at FSAA than the GeForce GT 240 GDDR5, and also will be able to handle higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GT 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 240 GDDR5		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 6000 (136%)

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 max amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.