GeForce 9800 GX2 vs GeForce GT 315

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GT 315, which features clock speeds of 625 MHz on the GPU, and 790 MHz on the 512 MB of DDR3 memory. It features 48 SPUs as well as 16 Texture Address Units and 8 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 315		52 Watts
GeForce 9800 GX2		197 Watts
	Difference: 145 Watts (279%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce 9800 GX2 should theoretically perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce GT 315 in general. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		128000 MB/sec
GeForce GT 315		25280 MB/sec
	Difference: 102720 (406%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GX2 should be quite a bit (more or less 668%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce GT 315. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		76800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 315		10000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 66800 (668%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce 9800 GX2 is superior to the GeForce GT 315, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		19200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 315		5000 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 14200 (284%)

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.

One or more cards in this comparison are multi-core. This means that their bandwidth, texel and pixel rates are theoretically doubled - this does not mean the card will actually perform twice as fast, but only that it should in theory be able to. Actual game benchmarks will give a more accurate idea of what it's capable of.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the largest amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called 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 of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.