Compare any two graphics cards:
VS

GeForce 8500 GT vs GeForce GT 310

Intro

The GeForce 8500 GT has a GPU core speed of 450 MHz, and the 512 MB of DDR2 RAM runs at 400 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is made up of 16 Stream Processors, 8 Texture Address Units, and 4 Raster Operation Units.

Compare that to the GeForce GT 310, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 589 MHz. The DDR2 memory is set to run at a speed of 1000 MHz on this specific model. It features 16 SPUs as well as 8 TAUs and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 310 31 Watts
GeForce 8500 GT 45 Watts
Difference: 14 Watts (45%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GT 310 should in theory be quite a bit superior to the GeForce 8500 GT overall. (explain)

GeForce GT 310 16000 MB/sec
GeForce 8500 GT 12800 MB/sec
Difference: 3200 (25%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 310 is quite a bit (about 31%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8500 GT. (explain)

GeForce GT 310 4712 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8500 GT 3600 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 1112 (31%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GT 310 is superior to the GeForce 8500 GT, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GT 310 2356 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8500 GT 1800 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 556 (31%)

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

Display Prices

Hide Prices

GeForce 8500 GT

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

GeForce GT 310

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

Specifications

Display Specifications

Hide Specifications

Model GeForce 8500 GT GeForce GT 310
Manufacturer nVidia nVidia
Year April 2007 November 2009
Code Name G86 GT218
Memory 512 MB 512 MB
Core Speed 450 MHz 589 MHz
Memory Speed 800 MHz 2000 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 45 watts 31 watts
Bandwidth 12800 MB/sec 16000 MB/sec
Texel Rate 3600 Mtexels/sec 4712 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 1800 Mpixels/sec 2356 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 16 16
Texture Mapping Units 8 8
Render Output Units 4 4
Bus Type DDR2 DDR2
Bus Width 128-bit 64-bit
Fab Process 80 nm 40 nm
Transistors 210 million 260 million
Bus PCIe x16, PCI, PCIe x16 2.0 PCIe 2.0
DirectX Version DirectX 10 DirectX 10.1
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 3.1

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the largest amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the video card can possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs 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 rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.

Display Prices

Hide Prices

GeForce 8500 GT

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

GeForce GT 310

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

Comments

Be the first to leave a comment!

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


*

WordPress Anti Spam by WP-SpamShield