GeForce 9800 GX2 vs GeForce GT 430 1GB

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GT 430 1GB, which uses a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 700 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM is set to run at a frequency of 900 MHz on this particular model. It features 96 SPUs along with 16 TAUs and 4 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 430 1GB		60 Watts
GeForce 9800 GX2		197 Watts
	Difference: 137 Watts (228%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce 9800 GX2 should perform much faster than the GeForce GT 430 1GB overall. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		128000 MB/sec
GeForce GT 430 1GB		28800 MB/sec
	Difference: 99200 (344%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GX2 should be quite a bit (about 586%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce GT 430 1GB. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		76800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 430 1GB		11200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 65600 (586%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce 9800 GX2 is superior to the GeForce GT 430 1GB, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		19200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 430 1GB		2800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 16400 (586%)

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.

One or more cards in this comparison are multi-core. This means that their bandwidth, texel and pixel rates are theoretically doubled - this does not mean the card will actually perform twice as fast, but only that it should in theory be able to. Actual game benchmarks will give a more accurate idea of what it's capable of.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the max amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

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