GeForce 9800 GX2 vs GeForce GT 310

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GT 310, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 589 MHz. The DDR2 RAM works at a speed of 1000 MHz on this card. It features 16 SPUs as well as 8 TAUs and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 310		31 Watts
GeForce 9800 GX2		197 Watts
	Difference: 166 Watts (535%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce 9800 GX2 will be 700% quicker than the GeForce GT 310 overall, due to its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		128000 MB/sec
GeForce GT 310		16000 MB/sec
	Difference: 112000 (700%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GX2 is much (more or less 1530%) better at AF than the GeForce GT 310. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		76800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 310		4712 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 72088 (1530%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce 9800 GX2 is superior to the GeForce GT 310, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		19200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 310		2356 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 16844 (715%)

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.

One or more cards in this comparison are multi-core. This means that their bandwidth, texel and pixel rates are theoretically doubled - this does not mean the card will actually perform twice as fast, but only that it should in theory be able to. Actual game benchmarks will give a more accurate idea of what it's capable of.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster 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 in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card can possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as 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, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.