GeForce GT 315 vs GeForce GTX 580 3GB

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 580 3GB, which comes with GPU clock speed of 772 MHz, and 3072 MB of GDDR5 RAM running at 1002 MHz through a 384-bit bus. It also is comprised of 512 SPUs, 64 TAUs, and 48 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 315		52 Watts
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		244 Watts
	Difference: 192 Watts (369%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 580 3GB will be 661% faster than the GeForce GT 315 in general, because of its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		192384 MB/sec
GeForce GT 315		25280 MB/sec
	Difference: 167104 (661%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB is much (about 394%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GT 315. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		49408 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 315		10000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 39408 (394%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 580 3GB is the winner, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		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 largest amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card can possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.