GeForce 8600 GTS vs GeForce GT 430 1GB

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GT 430 1GB, which comes with a core clock frequency of 700 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 900 MHz. It also features a 128-bit bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It is comprised of 96 SPUs, 16 TAUs, and 4 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 430 1GB		60 Watts
GeForce 8600 GTS		75 Watts
	Difference: 15 Watts (25%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce 8600 GTS should theoretically be just a bit better than the GeForce GT 430 1GB overall. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS		32000 MB/sec
GeForce GT 430 1GB		28800 MB/sec
	Difference: 3200 (11%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 430 1GB is a little bit (about 4%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GTS. (explain)

GeForce GT 430 1GB		11200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		10800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 400 (4%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 8600 GTS is much (about 93%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GT 430 1GB, and should be able to handle higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS		5400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 430 1GB		2800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2600 (93%)

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 data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units 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 applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.