GeForce GT 320 vs GeForce GT 430 1GB

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GT 430 1GB, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 700 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM runs at a frequency of 900 MHz on this specific card. It features 96 SPUs along with 16 Texture Address Units and 4 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 320		43 Watts
GeForce GT 430 1GB		60 Watts
	Difference: 17 Watts (40%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GT 430 1GB should theoretically be a small bit faster than the GeForce GT 320 in general. (explain)

GeForce GT 430 1GB		28800 MB/sec
GeForce GT 320		25280 MB/sec
	Difference: 3520 (14%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 320 will be a small bit (more or less 16%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GT 430 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GT 320		12960 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 430 1GB		11200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 1760 (16%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GT 320 should be quite a bit (approximately 54%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GT 430 1GB, and should be able to handle higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GT 320		4320 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 430 1GB		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 moved over the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core 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 processed per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card could possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill 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.