GeForce GTX 460 vs GeForce GTX 660

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 660, which has a GPU core clock speed of 980 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 memory set to run at 1502 MHz through a 192-bit bus. It also is comprised of 960 Stream Processors, 80 Texture Address Units, and 24 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Benchmarks

These are real-world performance benchmarks that were submitted by Hardware Compare users. The scores seen here are the average of all benchmarks submitted for each respective test and hardware.

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics Score

GeForce GTX 660		5063 points
GeForce GTX 460		2557 points
	Difference: 2506 (98%)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 660		140 Watts
GeForce GTX 460		150 Watts
	Difference: 10 Watts (7%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 660 should in theory be a lot better than the GeForce GTX 460 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		144192 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 460		86400 MB/sec
	Difference: 57792 (67%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 660 is much (approximately 107%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 460. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		78400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460		37800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 40600 (107%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 660 is much (about 45%) more effective at AA than the GeForce GTX 460, and will be capable of handling higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		23520 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 460		16200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 7320 (45%)

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 (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR 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 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 in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.