GeForce GT 315 vs GeForce GTX 580

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 580, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 772 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM works at a speed of 1002 MHz on this model. It features 512 SPUs as well as 64 TAUs and 48 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 315		52 Watts
GeForce GTX 580		244 Watts
	Difference: 192 Watts (369%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 580 should in theory be a lot superior to the GeForce GT 315 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580		192384 MB/sec
GeForce GT 315		25280 MB/sec
	Difference: 167104 (661%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 should be a lot (more or less 394%) better at AF than the GeForce GT 315. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580		49408 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 315		10000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 39408 (394%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 580 is a better choice, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580		37056 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 315		5000 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 32056 (641%)

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 max amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the 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 most pixels that the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.