GeForce GT 430 1GB vs GeForce GTS 250 512MB

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTS 250 512MB, which has core speeds of 738 MHz on the GPU, and 1100 MHz on the 512 MB of GDDR3 memory. It features 128 SPUs along with 64 Texture Address Units and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 430 1GB		60 Watts
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		145 Watts
	Difference: 85 Watts (142%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTS 250 512MB should theoretically be much better than the GeForce GT 430 1GB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 512MB		70400 MB/sec
GeForce GT 430 1GB		28800 MB/sec
	Difference: 41600 (144%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 512MB should be much (more or less 322%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GT 430 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 512MB		47232 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 430 1GB		11200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 36032 (322%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTS 250 512MB is the winner, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 512MB		11808 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 430 1GB		2800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 9008 (322%)

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 (counted in MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core 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 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 get to the maximum fill rate.