GeForce GT 315 vs GeForce GTX 460 2GB

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 460 2GB, which uses a 40 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed 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

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 315		52 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 2GB		160 Watts
	Difference: 108 Watts (208%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 460 2GB should be quite a bit faster than the GeForce GT 315 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		115200 MB/sec
GeForce GT 315		25280 MB/sec
	Difference: 89920 (356%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 2GB should be a lot (approximately 278%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GT 315. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		37800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 315		10000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 27800 (278%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 460 2GB is the winner, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		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: Bandwidth is the largest amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip could possibly write to its 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 speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.