GeForce GTX 460 SE vs GeForce GTX 970

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 970, which comes with GPU clock speed of 1050 MHz, and 4096 MB of GDDR5 RAM set to run at 1750 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is comprised of 1664 Stream Processors, 104 TAUs, and 64 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 970		145 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 SE		150 Watts
	Difference: 5 Watts (3%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 970, in theory, should perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce GTX 460 SE overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970		224000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 460 SE		108800 MB/sec
	Difference: 115200 (106%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 970 will be much (about 250%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 460 SE. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970		109200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 SE		31200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 78000 (250%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 970 is superior to the GeForce GTX 460 SE, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970		67200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 SE		20800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 46400 (223%)

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 megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the 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 that the graphics chip could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core clock speed. 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 of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.