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GeForce GT 315 vs GeForce GT 320

Intro

The GeForce GT 315 uses a 40 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 625 MHz. The DDR3 memory runs at a speed of 790 MHz on this model. It features 48 SPUs as well as 16 TAUs and 8 ROPs.

Compare that to the GeForce GT 320, which has core speeds of 540 MHz on the GPU, and 790 MHz on the 1024 MB of GDDR3 RAM. It features 72 SPUs along with 24 TAUs and 8 ROPs.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 320		43 Watts
GeForce GT 315		52 Watts
	Difference: 9 Watts (21%)

Memory Bandwidth

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

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 320 should be quite a bit (approximately 30%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GT 315. (explain)

GeForce GT 320		12960 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 315		10000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 2960 (30%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GT 315 should be just a bit (about 16%) better at FSAA than the GeForce GT 320, and should be capable of handling higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GT 315		5000 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 320		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 680 (16%)

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

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GeForce GT 315

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GeForce GT 320

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Specifications

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Model	GeForce GT 315	GeForce GT 320
Manufacturer	nVidia	nVidia
Year	November 2009	February 2010
Code Name	GT216	GT215
Memory	512 MB	1024 MB
Core Speed	625 MHz	540 MHz
Memory Speed	1580 MHz	1580 MHz
Power (Max TDP)	52 watts	43 watts
Bandwidth	25280 MB/sec	25280 MB/sec
Texel Rate	10000 Mtexels/sec	12960 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate	5000 Mpixels/sec	4320 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders	48	72
Texture Mapping Units	16	24
Render Output Units	8	8
Bus Type	DDR3	GDDR3
Bus Width	128-bit	128-bit
Fab Process	40 nm	40 nm
Transistors	486 million	727 million
Bus	PCIe 2.0	PCIe x16
DirectX Version	DirectX 10.1	DirectX 10.1
OpenGL Version	OpenGL 3.2	OpenGL 3.3

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the max amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.

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