GeForce GT 430 1GB vs GeForce GTX 480

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 480, which features a GPU core clock speed of 700 MHz, and 1536 MB of GDDR5 RAM running at 924 MHz through a 384-bit bus. It also features 480 Stream Processors, 60 Texture Address Units, and 48 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 430 1GB		60 Watts
GeForce GTX 480		250 Watts
	Difference: 190 Watts (317%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 480 should theoretically be a lot better than the GeForce GT 430 1GB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		177408 MB/sec
GeForce GT 430 1GB		28800 MB/sec
	Difference: 148608 (516%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 480 should be a lot (about 275%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GT 430 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		42000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 430 1GB		11200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 30800 (275%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 480 is quite a bit (approximately 1100%) better at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GT 430 1GB, and also will be able to handle higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		33600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 430 1GB		2800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 30800 (1100%)

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 (in units of MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. 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 quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.