GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB vs GeForce GT 430 1GB

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GT 430 1GB, which features core speeds of 700 MHz on the GPU, and 900 MHz on the 1024 MB of GDDR3 memory. It features 96 SPUs as well as 16 Texture Address Units and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 430 1GB		60 Watts
GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB		84 Watts
	Difference: 24 Watts (40%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB should perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce GT 430 1GB overall. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB		38400 MB/sec
GeForce GT 430 1GB		28800 MB/sec
	Difference: 9600 (33%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB should be much (about 136%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GT 430 1GB. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB		26400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 430 1GB		11200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 15200 (136%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB is a better choice, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB		6600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 430 1GB		2800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3800 (136%)

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 MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.