GeForce GT 430 vs GeForce GTX 280

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 280, which features core clock speeds of 602 MHz on the GPU, and 1107 MHz on the 1024 MB of GDDR3 RAM. It features 240 SPUs along with 80 Texture Address Units and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 430		60 Watts
GeForce GTX 280		236 Watts
	Difference: 176 Watts (293%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 280 should be 392% faster than the GeForce GT 430 overall, because of its greater bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 280		141696 MB/sec
GeForce GT 430		28800 MB/sec
	Difference: 112896 (392%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 280 should be a lot (about 330%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GT 430. (explain)

GeForce GTX 280		48160 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 430		11200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 36960 (330%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 280 should be quite a bit (more or less 588%) better at AA than the GeForce GT 430, and should be capable of handling higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 280		19264 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 430		2800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 16464 (588%)

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 maximum amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the card's 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 is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.