GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 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 memory is set to run at a speed of 900 MHz on this card. It features 96 SPUs along with 16 TAUs and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		47 Watts
GeForce GT 430 1GB		60 Watts
	Difference: 13 Watts (28%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GT 430 1GB, in theory, should perform much faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 in general. (explain)

GeForce GT 430 1GB		28800 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 16000 (125%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 430 1GB will be much (more or less 30%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce GT 430 1GB		11200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 2560 (30%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 should be much (approximately 54%) faster with regards to AA than the GeForce GT 430 1GB, and also capable of handling higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 430 1GB		2800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1520 (54%)

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: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This is calculated 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 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 chip could possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. 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 quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.