GeForce 9800 GX2 vs GeForce GT 315

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GT 315, which uses a 40 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 625 MHz. The DDR3 RAM works at a frequency of 790 MHz on this model. It features 48 SPUs as well as 16 TAUs and 8 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 315		52 Watts
GeForce 9800 GX2		197 Watts
	Difference: 145 Watts (279%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce 9800 GX2 should in theory be much superior to the GeForce GT 315 in general. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		128000 MB/sec
GeForce GT 315		25280 MB/sec
	Difference: 102720 (406%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GX2 is quite a bit (more or less 668%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GT 315. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		76800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 315		10000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 66800 (668%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GX2 will be much (about 284%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GT 315, and also will be able to handle higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		19200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 315		5000 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 14200 (284%)

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 max amount of information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses 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, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics card will be at 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 can possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.