GeForce GT 310 vs GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 460 (OEM), which uses a 40 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 650 MHz. The GDDR5 memory runs at a speed of 850 MHz on this card. It features 336 SPUs as well as 56 TAUs and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 310		31 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)		150 Watts
	Difference: 119 Watts (384%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 460 (OEM) is 580% quicker than the GeForce GT 310 in general, because of its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)		108800 MB/sec
GeForce GT 310		16000 MB/sec
	Difference: 92800 (580%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 (OEM) is a lot (about 672%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce GT 310. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)		36400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 310		4712 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 31688 (672%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 (OEM) will be a lot (more or less 783%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GT 310, and also should be capable of handling higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)		20800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 310		2356 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 18444 (783%)

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: Bandwidth is the largest amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.