GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 vs GeForce GT 430 (OEM)

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GT 430 (OEM), which has a GPU core clock speed of 700 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR3 memory set to run at 900 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is comprised of 96 Stream Processors, 16 Texture Address Units, and 4 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		47 Watts
GeForce GT 430 (OEM)		60 Watts
	Difference: 13 Watts (28%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GT 430 (OEM) should in theory be much faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 in general. (explain)

GeForce GT 430 (OEM)		28800 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 6400 (29%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 430 (OEM) should be much (more or less 30%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce GT 430 (OEM)		11200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 2560 (30%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 is quite a bit (approximately 54%) faster with regards to anti-aliasing than the GeForce GT 430 (OEM), and should be able to handle higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 430 (OEM)		2800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1520 (54%)

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 max amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.