GeForce 8800 Ultra vs GeForce GT 430

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GT 430, which has core clock speeds of 700 MHz on the GPU, and 900 MHz on the 512 MB of GDDR3 memory. It features 96 SPUs along with 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 8800 Ultra		171 Watts
	Difference: 111 Watts (185%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce 8800 Ultra should in theory be much better than the GeForce GT 430 overall. (explain)

GeForce 8800 Ultra		103680 MB/sec
GeForce GT 430		28800 MB/sec
	Difference: 74880 (260%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 Ultra should be a lot (approximately 250%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce GT 430. (explain)

GeForce 8800 Ultra		39168 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 430		11200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 27968 (250%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 8800 Ultra should be quite a bit (more or less 425%) faster with regards to anti-aliasing than the GeForce GT 430, and will be able to handle higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce 8800 Ultra		14688 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 430		2800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 11888 (425%)

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 data (in units of MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends 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.