GeForce GTX 460 SE vs GeForce GTX 660

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 660, which has a clock frequency of 980 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1502 MHz. It also uses a 192-bit bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It features 960 SPUs, 80 TAUs, and 24 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

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

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 660 will be 33% quicker than the GeForce GTX 460 SE in general, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		144192 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 460 SE		108800 MB/sec
	Difference: 35392 (33%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 660 will be much (about 151%) better at AF than the GeForce GTX 460 SE. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		78400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 SE		31200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 47200 (151%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 660 is a little bit (about 13%) more effective at FSAA than the GeForce GTX 460 SE, and will be able to handle higher resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		23520 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 SE		20800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2720 (13%)

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 (in units of MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the 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 most pixels the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also 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, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.