GeForce 8800 GT 512MB vs GeForce GT 430

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GT 430, which has GPU core speed of 700 MHz, and 512 MB of GDDR3 RAM running at 900 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also 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 GT 430		60 Watts
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		105 Watts
	Difference: 45 Watts (75%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce 8800 GT 512MB, in theory, should perform much faster than the GeForce GT 430 in general. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
GeForce GT 430		28800 MB/sec
	Difference: 28800 (100%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GT 512MB is quite a bit (about 200%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce GT 430. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 430		11200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 22400 (200%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GT 512MB is much (about 243%) more effective at FSAA than the GeForce GT 430, and also should be able to handle higher resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		9600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 430		2800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 6800 (243%)

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 max amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video card will be at handling 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 that the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the core 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 output rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.