GeForce GT 230 vs GeForce GTX 470

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 470, which has a clock frequency of 607 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 837 MHz. It also features a 320-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It is comprised of 448 SPUs, 56 TAUs, and 40 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 230		65 Watts
GeForce GTX 470		215 Watts
	Difference: 150 Watts (231%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 470 should in theory be much better than the GeForce GT 230 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		133920 MB/sec
GeForce GT 230		38400 MB/sec
	Difference: 95520 (249%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 470 should be much (about 286%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce GT 230. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		33992 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 230		8800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 25192 (286%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 470 is a better choice, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		24280 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 230		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 19880 (452%)

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 (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's 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 are processed in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the 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 maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called 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 of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.