GeForce GT 310 vs GeForce GTX 460 2GB

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 460 2GB, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 675 MHz. The GDDR5 memory runs at a speed of 900 MHz on this specific card. It features 336 SPUs as well as 56 Texture Address Units and 32 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 310		31 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 2GB		160 Watts
	Difference: 129 Watts (416%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce GTX 460 2GB should be a lot faster than the GeForce GT 310 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		115200 MB/sec
GeForce GT 310		16000 MB/sec
	Difference: 99200 (620%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 2GB will be quite a bit (more or less 702%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce GT 310. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		37800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 310		4712 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 33088 (702%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 2GB will be a lot (about 817%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GT 310, and also capable of handling higher screen resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		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: Bandwidth is the max amount of information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

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

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