GeForce GT 310 vs GeForce GTX 460

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 460, which has GPU core speed of 675 MHz, and 768 MB of GDDR5 RAM set to run at 900 MHz through a 192-bit bus. It also is comprised of 336 SPUs, 56 Texture Address Units, and 24 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

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

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 460 is 440% faster than the GeForce GT 310 overall, because of its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460		86400 MB/sec
GeForce GT 310		16000 MB/sec
	Difference: 70400 (440%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 should be quite a bit (more or less 702%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GT 310. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460		37800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 310		4712 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 33088 (702%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 460 is the winner, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460		16200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 310		2356 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 13844 (588%)

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 max amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the faster 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 applied per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card could possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.