GeForce 8500 GT vs GeForce GT 430

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GT 430, which features GPU clock speed of 700 MHz, and 512 MB of GDDR3 RAM set to run at 900 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is made up of 96 SPUs, 16 Texture Address Units, and 4 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8500 GT		45 Watts
GeForce GT 430		60 Watts
	Difference: 15 Watts (33%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GT 430 should be 125% quicker than the GeForce 8500 GT overall, because of its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GT 430		28800 MB/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 16000 (125%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 430 will be a lot (about 211%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce 8500 GT. (explain)

GeForce GT 430		11200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		3600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 7600 (211%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GT 430 is a better choice, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GT 430		2800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		1800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1000 (56%)

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 data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card can possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.