GeForce GT 430 vs GeForce GTS 250 1GB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTS 250 1GB, which uses a 65/55 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 738 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM is set to run at a frequency of 1100 MHz on this specific model. It features 128 SPUs as well as 64 Texture Address Units and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 430		60 Watts
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		145 Watts
	Difference: 85 Watts (142%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTS 250 1GB is 144% quicker than the GeForce GT 430 overall, due to its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		70400 MB/sec
GeForce GT 430		28800 MB/sec
	Difference: 41600 (144%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 1GB is quite a bit (approximately 322%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GT 430. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		47232 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 430		11200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 36032 (322%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTS 250 1GB is a better choice, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		11808 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 430		2800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 9008 (322%)

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 maximum amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the 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 texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card 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 per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the clock 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 output rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.