GeForce 8500 GT vs GeForce GT 430 1GB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GT 430 1GB, which has a clock frequency of 700 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 900 MHz. It also features a 128-bit bus, and uses 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 8500 GT		45 Watts
GeForce GT 430 1GB		60 Watts
	Difference: 15 Watts (33%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GT 430 1GB should perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce 8500 GT in general. (explain)

GeForce GT 430 1GB		28800 MB/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 16000 (125%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 430 1GB will be quite a bit (approximately 211%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 8500 GT. (explain)

GeForce GT 430 1GB		11200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		3600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 7600 (211%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GT 430 1GB is the winner, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GT 430 1GB		2800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		1800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1000 (56%)

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 information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip could possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.