NVIDIA GeForce GT 120M Mac Edition vs ATI FireGL X3-256

Comparative analysis of NVIDIA GeForce GT 120M Mac Edition and ATI FireGL X3-256 videocards for all known characteristics in the following categories: Essentials, Technical info, Video outputs and ports, Compatibility, dimensions and requirements, API support, Memory.

NVIDIA GeForce GT 120M Mac Edition

ATI FireGL X3-256

Differences

Reasons to consider the NVIDIA GeForce GT 120M Mac Edition

Videocard is newer: launch date 4 year(s) 4 month(s) later
Around 2% higher core clock speed: 500 MHz vs 491 MHz
Around 48% higher texture fill rate: 8 GTexel / s vs 5.4 GTexel / s
A newer manufacturing process allows for a more powerful, yet cooler running videocard: 55 nm vs 130 nm
4.1x lower typical power consumption: 14 Watt vs 57 Watt
Around 74% higher memory clock speed: 1584 MHz vs 908 MHz

Launch date	12 December 2008 vs 3 August 2004
Core clock speed	500 MHz vs 491 MHz
Texture fill rate	8 GTexel / s vs 5.4 GTexel / s
Manufacturing process technology	55 nm vs 130 nm
Thermal Design Power (TDP)	14 Watt vs 57 Watt
Memory clock speed	1584 MHz vs 908 MHz

Compare specifications (specs)

	NVIDIA GeForce GT 120M Mac Edition	ATI FireGL X3-256
Essentials
Architecture	Tesla	R400
Code name	G96C	R420
Launch date	12 December 2008	3 August 2004
Place in performance rating	not rated	not rated
Type	Desktop	Workstation
Launch price (MSRP)		$1,099
Technical info
Core clock speed	500 MHz	491 MHz
Floating-point performance	80 gflops
Manufacturing process technology	55 nm	130 nm
Pipelines	32
Texture fill rate	8 GTexel / s	5.4 GTexel / s
Thermal Design Power (TDP)	14 Watt	57 Watt
Transistor count	314 million	160 million
Video outputs and ports
Display Connectors	No outputs	2x DVI, 1x S-Video
Compatibility, dimensions and requirements
Interface	PCIe 2.0 x16	AGP 8x
Supplementary power connectors		1x Molex
API support
DirectX	10.0	9.0b
OpenGL	3.3	2.0
Memory
Maximum RAM amount	256 MB	256 MB
Memory bandwidth	25.34 GB / s	28.8 GB / s
Memory bus width	128 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	1584 MHz	908 MHz
Memory type	GDDR3	GDDR3