GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512 vs GeForce GT 310

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GT 310, which features a core clock speed of 589 MHz and a DDR2 memory frequency of 1000 MHz. It also makes use of a 64-bit bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It is made up of 16 SPUs, 8 Texture Address Units, and 4 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 310		31 Watts
GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512		84 Watts
	Difference: 53 Watts (171%)

Memory Bandwidth

Both cards have exactly the same memory bandwidth, so theoretically they should have identical performance. (explain)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512 will be much (more or less 460%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GT 310. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512		26400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 310		4712 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 21688 (460%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512 should be much (approximately 180%) better at anti-aliasing than the GeForce GT 310, and also capable of handling higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512		6600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 310		2356 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 4244 (180%)

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 max amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better 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 are processed per second. This is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the 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 the video card can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.