GeForce GT 310 vs GeForce GTX 960M

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 960M, which features a GPU core clock speed of 1096 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 1000 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also features 640 SPUs, 40 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 310		31 Watts
GeForce GTX 960M		65 Watts
	Difference: 34 Watts (110%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 960M will be 300% quicker than the GeForce GT 310 in general, because of its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960M		64000 MB/sec
GeForce GT 310		16000 MB/sec
	Difference: 48000 (300%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 960M is much (approximately 830%) better at AF than the GeForce GT 310. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960M		43840 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 310		4712 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 39128 (830%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 960M is a better choice, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960M		17536 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 310		2356 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 15180 (644%)

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 max amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster 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 texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics 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 maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the clock 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 rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.