GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB vs GeForce GT 430

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GT 430, which has a core clock frequency of 700 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 900 MHz. It also makes use of a 128-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It is made up of 96 SPUs, 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 9600 GSO 1.5GB		84 Watts
	Difference: 24 Watts (40%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB should be 33% faster than the GeForce GT 430 overall, because of its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		38400 MB/sec
GeForce GT 430		28800 MB/sec
	Difference: 9600 (33%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB will be quite a bit (approximately 136%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GT 430. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		26400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 430		11200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 15200 (136%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB is the winner, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 1.5GB		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: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher 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 maximum amount of pixels the video card can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. 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 of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.