GeForce GT 315 vs Radeon HD 3470 512MB

Intro

Compare all of that to the Radeon HD 3470 512MB, which features a core clock frequency of 800 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 950 MHz. It also features a 128-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 55 nm design. It is made up of 40(8x5) SPUs, 4 Texture Address Units, and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon HD 3470 512MB is 20% faster than the GeForce GT 315 in general, because of its greater bandwidth. (explain)

Radeon HD 3470 512MB		30400 MB/sec
GeForce GT 315		25280 MB/sec
	Difference: 5120 (20%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 315 will be quite a bit (more or less 213%) better at AF than the Radeon HD 3470 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GT 315		10000 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3470 512MB		3200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 6800 (213%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GT 315 will be much (approximately 56%) more effective at AA than the Radeon HD 3470 512MB, and also should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GT 315		5000 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3470 512MB		3200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1800 (56%)

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 maximum amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.