GeForce 8600 GTS vs GeForce GT 430 1GB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GT 430 1GB, which uses a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 700 MHz. The GDDR3 memory is set to run at a speed of 900 MHz on this model. It features 96 SPUs along with 16 Texture Address Units and 4 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 430 1GB		60 Watts
GeForce 8600 GTS		75 Watts
	Difference: 15 Watts (25%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce 8600 GTS should in theory perform a small bit faster than the GeForce GT 430 1GB overall. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS		32000 MB/sec
GeForce GT 430 1GB		28800 MB/sec
	Difference: 3200 (11%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 430 1GB is a little bit (more or less 4%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GTS. (explain)

GeForce GT 430 1GB		11200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		10800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 400 (4%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 8600 GTS is a lot (more or less 93%) more effective at FSAA than the GeForce GT 430 1GB, and capable of handling higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS		5400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 430 1GB		2800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2600 (93%)

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 maximum amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's 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 are applied per second. This is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs 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 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 get to the max fill rate.