GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 vs GeForce GT 315

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GT 315, which comes with core speeds of 625 MHz on the GPU, and 790 MHz on the 512 MB of DDR3 RAM. It features 48 SPUs along with 16 TAUs and 8 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		47 Watts
GeForce GT 315		52 Watts
	Difference: 5 Watts (11%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GT 315 should theoretically be a bit better than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 overall. (explain)

GeForce GT 315		25280 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 2880 (13%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 315 is a small bit (approximately 16%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce GT 315		10000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 1360 (16%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GT 315 is superior to the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3, but it probably won't make a huge difference. (explain)

GeForce GT 315		5000 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 680 (16%)

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 megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, 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 texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock 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 applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the video card could possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.