GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB vs GeForce GT 240 GDDR5

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GT 240 GDDR5, which features core 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 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 240 GDDR5		70 Watts
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		90 Watts
	Difference: 20 Watts (29%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB should perform a little bit faster than the GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 overall. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB should be quite a bit (approximately 77%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GT 240 GDDR5. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		31200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 240 GDDR5		17600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 13600 (77%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB will be much (about 136%) faster with regards to anti-aliasing than the GeForce GT 240 GDDR5, and also able to handle higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 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: Bandwidth is the largest amount of information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as 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 memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.