GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 vs GeForce GT 430 (OEM)

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GT 430 (OEM), which comes with a core clock frequency of 700 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 900 MHz. It also makes use of a 128-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It is made up of 96 SPUs, 16 Texture Address Units, and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		47 Watts
GeForce GT 430 (OEM)		60 Watts
	Difference: 13 Watts (28%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GT 430 (OEM) should be quite a bit faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 in general. (explain)

GeForce GT 430 (OEM)		28800 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 6400 (29%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 430 (OEM) will be much (about 30%) better at AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce GT 430 (OEM)		11200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 2560 (30%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 should be quite a bit (approximately 54%) more effective at FSAA than the GeForce GT 430 (OEM), and will be able to handle higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 430 (OEM)		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: Memory bandwidth is the largest amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This 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 texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the video card could possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel 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 reach the max fill rate.