GeForce GT 230 vs Radeon R9 M275X

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon R9 M275X, which has a core clock speed of 900 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1125 MHz. It also makes use of a 128-bit memory bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It is comprised of 640 SPUs, 40 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon R9 M275X		50 Watts
GeForce GT 230		65 Watts
	Difference: 15 Watts (30%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon R9 M275X will be 88% faster than the GeForce GT 230 in general, due to its greater bandwidth. (explain)

Radeon R9 M275X		72000 MB/sec
GeForce GT 230		38400 MB/sec
	Difference: 33600 (88%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 M275X will be much (approximately 309%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GT 230. (explain)

Radeon R9 M275X		36000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 230		8800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 27200 (309%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the Radeon R9 M275X is a better choice, and very much so. (explain)

Radeon R9 M275X		14400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 230		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 10000 (227%)

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 maximum amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the video card can possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.