GeForce GTX 460 SE vs GeForce GTX 660

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 660, which has GPU 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 TAUs, and 24 Raster Operation Units.

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

The GeForce GTX 660 should in theory perform a lot faster than the GeForce GTX 460 SE in general. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 660 is much (more or less 151%) better at anisotropic filtering 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

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 660 is superior to the GeForce GTX 460 SE, though only just barely. (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: Memory bandwidth is the max amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the 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 are processed in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher 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 amount of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. 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 potential to reach the max fill rate.