GeForce GTX 460 SE vs Geforce GTX 680

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Geforce GTX 680, which has GPU core speed of 1006 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 RAM running at 1502 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is comprised of 1536 SPUs, 128 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		150 Watts
Geforce GTX 680		195 Watts
	Difference: 45 Watts (30%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Geforce GTX 680 should perform a lot faster than the GeForce GTX 460 SE overall. (explain)

Geforce GTX 680		192256 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 460 SE		108800 MB/sec
	Difference: 83456 (77%)

Texel Rate

The Geforce GTX 680 is a lot (approximately 313%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GTX 460 SE. (explain)

Geforce GTX 680		128768 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 SE		31200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 97568 (313%)

Pixel Rate

The Geforce GTX 680 is quite a bit (about 55%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 460 SE, and able to handle higher resolutions better. (explain)

Geforce GTX 680		32192 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 SE		20800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 11392 (55%)

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 information (measured in MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video 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 number of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. 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 fill rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.