GeForce 8500 GT vs GeForce GT 430 1GB

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GT 430 1GB, which uses a 40 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 700 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM is set to run at a speed of 900 MHz on this specific card. It features 96 SPUs as well as 16 TAUs and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8500 GT		45 Watts
GeForce GT 430 1GB		60 Watts
	Difference: 15 Watts (33%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GT 430 1GB should be 125% quicker than the GeForce 8500 GT overall, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce GT 430 1GB		28800 MB/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 16000 (125%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 430 1GB is a lot (more or less 211%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 8500 GT. (explain)

GeForce GT 430 1GB		11200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		3600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 7600 (211%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GT 430 1GB should be quite a bit (approximately 56%) faster with regards to FSAA than the GeForce 8500 GT, and capable of handling higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GT 430 1GB		2800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		1800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1000 (56%)

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 information (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the card's 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 output rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.