GeForce 9800 GT 512MB vs GeForce GT 340 1GB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GT 340 1GB, which features clock speeds of 550 MHz on the GPU, and 850 MHz on the 1024 MB of GDDR5 RAM. 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 340 1GB		69 Watts
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		105 Watts
	Difference: 36 Watts (52%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce 9800 GT 512MB should be a bit faster than the GeForce GT 340 1GB in general. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
GeForce GT 340 1GB		54400 MB/sec
	Difference: 3200 (6%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GT 512MB will be quite a bit (about 91%) better at AF than the GeForce GT 340 1GB. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 340 1GB		17600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 16000 (91%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GT 512MB is a lot (approximately 118%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GT 340 1GB, and also should be able to handle higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GT 512MB		9600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 340 1GB		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 5200 (118%)

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 max amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the card will be at handling 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 that the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of ROPs 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 is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.