GeForce GTX 460 2GB vs Geforce GTX 680

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Geforce GTX 680, which has GPU clock speed of 1006 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 1502 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also features 1536 Stream Processors, 128 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		160 Watts
Geforce GTX 680		195 Watts
	Difference: 35 Watts (22%)

Memory Bandwidth

The Geforce GTX 680 should theoretically be a lot faster than the GeForce GTX 460 2GB overall. (explain)

Geforce GTX 680		192256 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 460 2GB		115200 MB/sec
	Difference: 77056 (67%)

Texel Rate

The Geforce GTX 680 will be a lot (approximately 241%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 460 2GB. (explain)

Geforce GTX 680		128768 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 2GB		37800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 90968 (241%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high screen resolution is important to you, then the Geforce GTX 680 is the winner, by a large margin. (explain)

Geforce GTX 680		32192 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 2GB		21600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 10592 (49%)

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 max amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of 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 AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at 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 can possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.