GeForce GT 430 1GB vs GeForce GTX 260

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 260, which has GPU core speed of 576 MHz, and 896 MB of GDDR3 memory set to run at 999 MHz through a 448-bit bus. It also features 192 SPUs, 64 Texture Address Units, and 28 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 430 1GB		60 Watts
GeForce GTX 260		182 Watts
	Difference: 122 Watts (203%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 260 will be 289% faster than the GeForce GT 430 1GB in general, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260		111888 MB/sec
GeForce GT 430 1GB		28800 MB/sec
	Difference: 83088 (289%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 260 should be quite a bit (about 229%) better at AF than the GeForce GT 430 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260		36864 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 430 1GB		11200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 25664 (229%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 260 is superior to the GeForce GT 430 1GB, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260		16128 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 430 1GB		2800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 13328 (476%)

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 data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, 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 processed in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the graphics card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.