GeForce GT 315 vs GeForce GTX 460 1GB

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 460 1GB, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 675 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM runs at a frequency of 900 MHz on this particular model. It features 336 SPUs along with 56 Texture Address Units and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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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

The GeForce GTX 460 1GB should in theory perform much 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 quite a bit (about 278%) more effective at 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

If using a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 460 1GB is superior to the GeForce GT 315, by a large margin. (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 megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it must 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, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be 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 higher the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). 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 maximum fill rate.