GeForce GT 315 vs GeForce GTX 660

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 660, which comes with core speeds of 980 MHz on the GPU, and 1502 MHz on the 2048 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 960 SPUs as well as 80 TAUs and 24 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 315		52 Watts
GeForce GTX 660		140 Watts
	Difference: 88 Watts (169%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 660, in theory, should perform much faster than the GeForce GT 315 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		144192 MB/sec
GeForce GT 315		25280 MB/sec
	Difference: 118912 (470%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 660 should be much (approximately 684%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GT 315. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		78400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 315		10000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 68400 (684%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 660 should be much (approximately 370%) faster with regards to anti-aliasing than the GeForce GT 315, and also should be capable of handling higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		23520 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 315		5000 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 18520 (370%)

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 information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core 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 applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card can 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 Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.