GeForce GT 310 vs GeForce GT 430

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GT 430, which has a clock frequency of 700 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 900 MHz. It also features a 128-bit memory bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It is comprised of 96 SPUs, 16 Texture Address Units, and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 310		31 Watts
GeForce GT 430		60 Watts
	Difference: 29 Watts (94%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GT 430 should theoretically be much better than the GeForce GT 310 overall. (explain)

GeForce GT 430		28800 MB/sec
GeForce GT 310		16000 MB/sec
	Difference: 12800 (80%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 430 will be quite a bit (about 138%) better at AF than the GeForce GT 310. (explain)

GeForce GT 430		11200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 310		4712 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 6488 (138%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GT 430 is a better choice, but only just. (explain)

GeForce GT 430		2800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 310		2356 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 444 (19%)

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 across the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka 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 memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.