GeForce GT 230 vs GeForce GTX 980

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 980, which has a core clock speed of 1126 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1750 MHz. It also makes use of a 256-bit bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It is comprised of 2048 SPUs, 128 TAUs, and 64 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 230		65 Watts
GeForce GTX 980		165 Watts
	Difference: 100 Watts (154%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 980 should in theory be quite a bit superior to the GeForce GT 230 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980		224000 MB/sec
GeForce GT 230		38400 MB/sec
	Difference: 185600 (483%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 980 is quite a bit (about 1538%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GT 230. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980		144128 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 230		8800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 135328 (1538%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 980 is superior to the GeForce GT 230, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980		72064 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 230		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 67664 (1538%)

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 (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.