GeForce GT 310 vs GeForce GTS 450 1GB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTS 450 1GB, which comes with a clock speed of 783 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 902 MHz. It also makes use of a 128-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It is made up of 192 SPUs, 32 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 310		31 Watts
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		106 Watts
	Difference: 75 Watts (242%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce GTS 450 1GB should perform a lot faster than the GeForce GT 310 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		57728 MB/sec
GeForce GT 310		16000 MB/sec
	Difference: 41728 (261%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 450 1GB will be much (about 432%) better at AF than the GeForce GT 310. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		25056 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 310		4712 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 20344 (432%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTS 450 1GB will be much (approximately 432%) more effective at FSAA than the GeForce GT 310, and capable of handling higher screen resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		12528 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 310		2356 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 10172 (432%)

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 information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.