GeForce 9800 GX2 vs GeForce GT 430

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GT 430, which features a core clock frequency of 700 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 900 MHz. It also features a 128-bit bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It features 96 SPUs, 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 GT 430		60 Watts
GeForce 9800 GX2		197 Watts
	Difference: 137 Watts (228%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce 9800 GX2, in theory, should be a lot faster than the GeForce GT 430 in general. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		128000 MB/sec
GeForce GT 430		28800 MB/sec
	Difference: 99200 (344%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GX2 should be a lot (more or less 586%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce GT 430. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		76800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 430		11200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 65600 (586%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GX2 will be much (more or less 586%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the GeForce GT 430, and also should be capable of handling higher resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		19200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 430		2800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 16400 (586%)

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.

One or more cards in this comparison are multi-core. This means that their bandwidth, texel and pixel rates are theoretically doubled - this does not mean the card will actually perform twice as fast, but only that it should in theory be able to. Actual game benchmarks will give a more accurate idea of what it's capable of.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the largest amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core 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 also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.