GeForce GT 310 vs GeForce GTX 460 1GB

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 460 1GB, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 675 MHz. The GDDR5 memory runs at a speed of 900 MHz on this specific model. It features 336 SPUs along with 56 Texture Address Units and 32 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 1GB		160 Watts
	Difference: 129 Watts (416%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 460 1GB should be 620% quicker than the GeForce GT 310 overall, because of its greater bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		115200 MB/sec
GeForce GT 310		16000 MB/sec
	Difference: 99200 (620%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 1GB will be a lot (approximately 702%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GT 310. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		37800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 310		4712 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 33088 (702%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 460 1GB is a better choice, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		21600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 310		2356 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 19244 (817%)

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 largest amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card could possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines 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 also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.