GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB vs GeForce GT 430 1GB

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GT 430 1GB, which features GPU core speed of 700 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR3 memory running at 900 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is comprised of 96 Stream Processors, 16 TAUs, 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 9600 GSO 512MB		90 Watts
	Difference: 30 Watts (50%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB should in theory be a lot faster than the GeForce GT 430 1GB overall. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		57600 MB/sec
GeForce GT 430 1GB		28800 MB/sec
	Difference: 28800 (100%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB should be much (approximately 179%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GT 430 1GB. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		31200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 430 1GB		11200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 20000 (179%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB will be quite a bit (approximately 271%) faster with regards to anti-aliasing than the GeForce GT 430 1GB, and will be capable of handling higher resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 430 1GB		2800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 7600 (271%)

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 transported across 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 RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video 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 that the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.