GeForce 8400 GS 512MB vs GeForce GT 430

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GT 430, which comes with 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 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		40 Watts
GeForce GT 430		60 Watts
	Difference: 20 Watts (50%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GT 430 should theoretically be a lot better than the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GT 430		28800 MB/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		6400 MB/sec
	Difference: 22400 (350%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 430 is a lot (approximately 115%) better at AF than the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GT 430		11200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		5200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 6000 (115%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GT 430 should be a small bit (approximately 8%) better at AA than the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB, and able to handle higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GT 430		2800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		2600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 200 (8%)

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 (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.