GeForce GT 430 1GB vs Radeon HD 3470 512MB

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon HD 3470 512MB, which uses a 55 nm design. AMD has set the core speed at 800 MHz. The GDDR3 memory runs at a frequency of 950 MHz on this specific model. It features 40(8x5) SPUs along with 4 TAUs and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the Radeon HD 3470 512MB should perform a bit faster than the GeForce GT 430 1GB in general. (explain)

Radeon HD 3470 512MB		30400 MB/sec
GeForce GT 430 1GB		28800 MB/sec
	Difference: 1600 (6%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 430 1GB is much (more or less 250%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the Radeon HD 3470 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GT 430 1GB		11200 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3470 512MB		3200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 8000 (250%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 3470 512MB will be a little bit (approximately 14%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GT 430 1GB, and able to handle higher resolutions better. (explain)

Radeon HD 3470 512MB		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 max amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better 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 texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the graphics card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the video card could possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel 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 maximum fill rate.