GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB vs GeForce GT 430 (OEM)

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GT 430 (OEM), which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 700 MHz. The GDDR3 memory works at a speed of 900 MHz on this card. It features 96 SPUs as well as 16 Texture Address Units and 4 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 430 (OEM)		60 Watts
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		90 Watts
	Difference: 30 Watts (50%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB will be 100% quicker than the GeForce GT 430 (OEM) overall, due to its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		57600 MB/sec
GeForce GT 430 (OEM)		28800 MB/sec
	Difference: 28800 (100%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB is a lot (approximately 179%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GT 430 (OEM). (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		31200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 430 (OEM)		11200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 20000 (179%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB is the winner, by far. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 430 (OEM)		2800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 7600 (271%)

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 data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines 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, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.