GeForce GT 315 vs GeForce GT 430

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GT 430, which uses a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 700 MHz. The GDDR3 memory is set to run at a frequency of 900 MHz on this card. It features 96 SPUs along with 16 Texture Address Units and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 315		52 Watts
GeForce GT 430		60 Watts
	Difference: 8 Watts (15%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GT 430 will be 14% quicker than the GeForce GT 315 overall, because of its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GT 430		28800 MB/sec
GeForce GT 315		25280 MB/sec
	Difference: 3520 (14%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 430 will be a little bit (approximately 12%) better at AF than the GeForce GT 315. (explain)

GeForce GT 430		11200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 315		10000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 1200 (12%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GT 315 should be a lot (more or less 79%) more effective at FSAA than the GeForce GT 430, and also able to handle higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GT 315		5000 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 430		2800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2200 (79%)

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 maximum amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate is also dependant 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 maximum fill rate.