GeForce GT 310 vs GeForce GTX 850M

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 850M, which features core clock speeds of 876 MHz on the GPU, and 1000 MHz on the 2048 MB of DDR3 RAM. It features 640 SPUs along with 40 TAUs and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 310		31 Watts
GeForce GTX 850M		40 Watts
	Difference: 9 Watts (29%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 850M should in theory perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce GT 310 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 850M		32000 MB/sec
GeForce GT 310		16000 MB/sec
	Difference: 16000 (100%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 850M is a lot (approximately 644%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce GT 310. (explain)

GeForce GTX 850M		35040 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 310		4712 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 30328 (644%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 850M should be much (about 495%) more effective at AA than the GeForce GT 310, and will be capable of handling higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 850M		14016 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 310		2356 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 11660 (495%)

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 data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units 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 one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card can possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.