GeForce GT 430 vs Radeon HD 3870 1GB

Intro

Compare all that to the Radeon HD 3870 1GB, which has a core clock frequency of 775 MHz and a GDDR4 memory speed of 1125 MHz. It also uses a 256-bit bus, and makes use of a 55 nm design. It is made up of 320(64x5) SPUs, 16 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 430		60 Watts
Radeon HD 3870 1GB		106 Watts
	Difference: 46 Watts (77%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the Radeon HD 3870 1GB should in theory be a lot better than the GeForce GT 430 in general. (explain)

Radeon HD 3870 1GB		72000 MB/sec
GeForce GT 430		28800 MB/sec
	Difference: 43200 (150%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 3870 1GB should be a small bit (approximately 11%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GT 430. (explain)

Radeon HD 3870 1GB		12400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 430		11200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 1200 (11%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high screen resolution is important to you, then the Radeon HD 3870 1GB is a better choice, by far. (explain)

Radeon HD 3870 1GB		12400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 430		2800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 9600 (343%)

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 MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video 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 record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.