GeForce GT 315 vs GeForce GTX 580

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 580, which comes with a clock frequency of 772 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1002 MHz. It also uses a 384-bit bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It is comprised of 512 SPUs, 64 TAUs, and 48 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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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

The GeForce GTX 580, in theory, should be much faster than the GeForce GT 315 in general. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 is quite a bit (about 394%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GT 315. (explain)

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

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 is much (more or less 641%) better at AA than the GeForce GT 315, and also should be able to handle higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (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: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video 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 record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core 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 output 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 potential to get to the max fill rate.