GeForce 9600 GSO 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 memory. 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 1GB		69 Watts
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		90 Watts
	Difference: 21 Watts (30%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB should perform a bit faster than the GeForce GT 340 1GB in general. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		57600 MB/sec
GeForce GT 340 1GB		54400 MB/sec
	Difference: 3200 (6%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB is much (approximately 77%) better at AF than the GeForce GT 340 1GB. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		31200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 340 1GB		17600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 13600 (77%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB will be quite a bit (more or less 136%) better at FSAA than the GeForce GT 340 1GB, and also will be capable of handling higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 340 1GB		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 information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.