GeForce GT 310 vs GeForce GTX 460

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 460, which features core speeds of 675 MHz on the GPU, and 900 MHz on the 768 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 336 SPUs as well as 56 TAUs and 24 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

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

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 460 should be a lot faster than the GeForce GT 310 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460		86400 MB/sec
GeForce GT 310		16000 MB/sec
	Difference: 70400 (440%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 is a lot (approximately 702%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GT 310. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460		37800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 310		4712 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 33088 (702%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 460 is a better choice, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460		16200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 310		2356 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 13844 (588%)

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 (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, 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 texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at 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 could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). 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 potential to reach the max fill rate.