The GeForce GT 240 is a derivative of the GT200 GPU that powers the GeForce GTX 280 and the GeForce GTX 260. It is a slimmed-down version that features 96 stream processors and 8 ROPs. At the official core speed of 550 MHz, it is capable of processing up to 17.6 billion texels and 4.4 billion pixels per second. Officially, the GeForce GT 240 can either use 900 MHz DDR3, 1 GHz GDDR3 or 850 MHz GDDR5 memory, delivering anywhere from 28.8 GB/s to 54.4 GB/s of memory bandwidth. But Galaxy is never satisfied with sticking to the official specifications. Even though they are not officially calling this a factory-overclocked card, Galaxy gave their GeForce GT 240 (DDR5) card a slight boost in memory clock speed, going from 850 MHz to 900 MHz. Let's see how well that works out for them:

The GT215 GPU used in the Galaxy GeForce GT 240 is essentially a die-shrinked and simplified version of the GT200 GPU. It is not a 3D graphics powerhouse like the GeForce GTX 280 or even the GeForce GTX 260. However, it is actually a remarkable achievement - delivering more processing power at a lower cost and with a lower power consumption.

Specifications-wise, it is "slower" than even the low-powered version (59 W) of the GeForce 9600 GT, delivering 8% less texture fillrate and even worse, less than half the pixel fillrate! However, its real world performance tells a whole different story.

In our tests, it was generally about as fast as the higher-powered GeForce 9600 GT (96 W). Only in Far Cry 2 and Left 4 Dead was it slower than the GeForce 9600 GT (96 W). This goes to show why you cannot just rely on specifications to determine a graphics card's performance level. If you have to choose between the two cards, it's a no-brainer - the Galaxy GeForce GT 240 wins hands down. Not only is it cheaper, it gives you the same performance level as the GeForce 9600 GT (96 W) with lower power consumption and thermal output. How can you beat that?