GeForce GT 230 vs Radeon R9 M290X

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon R9 M290X, which features GPU core speed of 850 MHz, and 4096 MB of GDDR5 memory set to run at 1200 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also features 1280 SPUs, 80 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 230		65 Watts
Radeon R9 M290X		100 Watts
	Difference: 35 Watts (54%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Radeon R9 M290X should be a lot faster than the GeForce GT 230 in general. (explain)

Radeon R9 M290X		153600 MB/sec
GeForce GT 230		38400 MB/sec
	Difference: 115200 (300%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 M290X will be a lot (about 673%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GT 230. (explain)

Radeon R9 M290X		68000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 230		8800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 59200 (673%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon R9 M290X will be quite a bit (about 518%) faster with regards to FSAA than the GeForce GT 230, and also will be able to handle higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

Radeon R9 M290X		27200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 230		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 22800 (518%)

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 largest amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the graphics card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the video card could possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.