GeForce 9800 GT 1GB vs GeForce GT 240 GDDR5

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GT 240 GDDR5, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 550 MHz. The GDDR5 memory works at a speed of 850 MHz on this specific model. 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 240 GDDR5		70 Watts
GeForce 9800 GT 1GB		105 Watts
	Difference: 35 Watts (50%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce 9800 GT 1GB should in theory be a little bit superior to the GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 in general. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GT 1GB		57600 MB/sec
GeForce GT 240 GDDR5		54400 MB/sec
	Difference: 3200 (6%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GT 1GB will be a lot (about 91%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GT 240 GDDR5. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GT 1GB		33600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 240 GDDR5		17600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 16000 (91%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GT 1GB is much (approximately 118%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GT 240 GDDR5, and also able to handle higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GT 1GB		9600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 240 GDDR5		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 data (measured in MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate also depends 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.