GeForce GT 230 vs Radeon R9 270X

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon R9 270X, which features a core clock frequency of 1000 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1400 MHz. It also features a 256-bit bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It is made up of 1280 SPUs, 80 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 230		65 Watts
Radeon R9 270X		180 Watts
	Difference: 115 Watts (177%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the Radeon R9 270X should perform much faster than the GeForce GT 230 in general. (explain)

Radeon R9 270X		179200 MB/sec
GeForce GT 230		38400 MB/sec
	Difference: 140800 (367%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 270X should be a lot (about 809%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GT 230. (explain)

Radeon R9 270X		80000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 230		8800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 71200 (809%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon R9 270X is much (about 627%) better at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GT 230, and should be able to handle higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

Radeon R9 270X		32000 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 230		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 27600 (627%)

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 largest amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type memory, it must 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 AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core 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 in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.