GeForce 8800 GT 256MB vs GeForce GT 430

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GT 430, which features clock speeds of 700 MHz on the GPU, and 900 MHz on the 512 MB of GDDR3 memory. It features 96 SPUs as well as 16 Texture Address Units 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 8800 GT 256MB		105 Watts
	Difference: 45 Watts (75%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB should theoretically be a lot better than the GeForce GT 430 overall. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		44800 MB/sec
GeForce GT 430		28800 MB/sec
	Difference: 16000 (56%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GT 256MB should be quite a bit (approximately 200%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GT 430. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 430		11200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 22400 (200%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB is a better choice, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		9600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 430		2800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 6800 (243%)

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 past the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the better 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 are applied in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. 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 get to the maximum fill rate.