GeForce GT 340 1GB vs GeForce GT 430 1GB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GT 430 1GB, which features a clock frequency of 700 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 900 MHz. It also makes use of a 128-bit memory bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It is made up of 96 SPUs, 16 Texture Address Units, and 4 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 430 1GB		60 Watts
GeForce GT 340 1GB		69 Watts
	Difference: 9 Watts (15%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GT 340 1GB should be 89% faster than the GeForce GT 430 1GB overall, because of its greater bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GT 340 1GB		54400 MB/sec
GeForce GT 430 1GB		28800 MB/sec
	Difference: 25600 (89%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 340 1GB is much (approximately 57%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GT 430 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GT 340 1GB		17600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 430 1GB		11200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 6400 (57%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GT 340 1GB is the winner, by far. (explain)

GeForce GT 340 1GB		4400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 430 1GB		2800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1600 (57%)

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 one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus 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 ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.