GeForce GT 315 vs GeForce GTX 580 3GB

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 580 3GB, which features core clock speeds of 772 MHz on the GPU, and 1002 MHz on the 3072 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 512 SPUs as well as 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

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 580 3GB should perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce GT 315 overall. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB will be quite a bit (approximately 394%) more effective at AF 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 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 (in units of MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the card's 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 lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.