GeForce GT 310 vs GeForce GTX 470

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 470, which comes with GPU clock speed of 607 MHz, and 1280 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 837 MHz through a 320-bit bus. It also features 448 SPUs, 56 TAUs, and 40 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 310		31 Watts
GeForce GTX 470		215 Watts
	Difference: 184 Watts (594%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 470 should in theory be quite a bit superior to the GeForce GT 310 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		133920 MB/sec
GeForce GT 310		16000 MB/sec
	Difference: 117920 (737%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 470 should be much (about 621%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GT 310. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		33992 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 310		4712 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 29280 (621%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 470 will be a lot (more or less 931%) better at FSAA than the GeForce GT 310, and able to handle higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		24280 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 310		2356 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 21924 (931%)

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 data (counted in MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.