GeForce 9800 GTX vs GeForce GT 430

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GT 430, which has a core clock speed of 700 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 900 MHz. It also uses a 128-bit bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It is made up of 96 SPUs, 16 TAUs, and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 430		60 Watts
GeForce 9800 GTX		140 Watts
	Difference: 80 Watts (133%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce 9800 GTX should in theory perform a lot faster than the GeForce GT 430 in general. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX		70400 MB/sec
GeForce GT 430		28800 MB/sec
	Difference: 41600 (144%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GTX is a lot (about 286%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GT 430. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX		43200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 430		11200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 32000 (286%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GTX will be much (more or less 286%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GT 430, and also should be capable of handling higher resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX		10800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 430		2800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 8000 (286%)

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 information (counted in MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better 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 number 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 higher the texel rate, the better the graphics 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 most pixels the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.