GeForce GT 430 1GB vs Radeon HD 3470 256MB

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon HD 3470 256MB, which uses a 55 nm design. AMD has clocked the core frequency at 800 MHz. The DDR2 memory is set to run at a frequency of 950 MHz on this model. It features 40(8x5) SPUs as well as 4 TAUs and 4 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon HD 3470 256MB should perform a small bit faster than the GeForce GT 430 1GB overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 3470 256MB		30400 MB/sec
GeForce GT 430 1GB		28800 MB/sec
	Difference: 1600 (6%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 430 1GB will be a lot (more or less 250%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the Radeon HD 3470 256MB. (explain)

GeForce GT 430 1GB		11200 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3470 256MB		3200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 8000 (250%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the Radeon HD 3470 256MB is the winner, not by a very large margin though. (explain)

Radeon HD 3470 256MB		3200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 430 1GB		2800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 400 (14%)

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 largest amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.