GeForce GT 310 vs GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 460 (OEM), which has GPU core speed of 650 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR5 RAM running at 850 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is comprised of 336 SPUs, 56 Texture Address Units, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 310		31 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)		150 Watts
	Difference: 119 Watts (384%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 460 (OEM) should be much faster than the GeForce GT 310 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)		108800 MB/sec
GeForce GT 310		16000 MB/sec
	Difference: 92800 (580%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 (OEM) will be quite a bit (about 672%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GT 310. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)		36400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 310		4712 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 31688 (672%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 460 (OEM) is a better choice, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)		20800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 310		2356 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 18444 (783%)

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 largest amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better 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 can be applied per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock 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 processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.