GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB vs GeForce GT 430

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GT 430, which has core speeds of 700 MHz on the GPU, and 900 MHz on the 512 MB of GDDR3 RAM. It features 96 SPUs along with 16 TAUs and 4 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 430		60 Watts
GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		84 Watts
	Difference: 24 Watts (40%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB is 33% faster than the GeForce GT 430 overall, because of its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		38400 MB/sec
GeForce GT 430		28800 MB/sec
	Difference: 9600 (33%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB is a lot (more or less 136%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GT 430. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		26400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 430		11200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 15200 (136%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB is superior to the GeForce GT 430, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		6600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 430		2800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3800 (136%)

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 information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the graphics 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 maximum amount of pixels the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. 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 fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.