GeForce GT 315 vs GeForce GTX 460 1GB

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 460 1GB, which comes with core clock speeds of 675 MHz on the GPU, and 900 MHz on the 1024 MB of GDDR5 RAM. It features 336 SPUs along with 56 TAUs and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 315		52 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 1GB		160 Watts
	Difference: 108 Watts (208%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 460 1GB should perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce GT 315 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		115200 MB/sec
GeForce GT 315		25280 MB/sec
	Difference: 89920 (356%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 1GB will be a lot (about 278%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce GT 315. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		37800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 315		10000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 27800 (278%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 1GB is much (approximately 332%) faster with regards to AA than the GeForce GT 315, and also capable of handling higher screen resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		21600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 315		5000 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 16600 (332%)

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 MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

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