GeForce GTX 460 1GB vs GeForce GTX 850M

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 850M, which has GPU core speed of 876 MHz, and 2048 MB of DDR3 memory set to run at 1000 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is comprised of 640 Stream Processors, 40 Texture Address Units, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 850M		40 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 1GB		160 Watts
	Difference: 120 Watts (300%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 460 1GB should be 260% quicker than the GeForce GTX 850M overall, because of its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		115200 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 850M		32000 MB/sec
	Difference: 83200 (260%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 1GB should be a little bit (more or less 8%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 850M. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		37800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 850M		35040 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 2760 (8%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 460 1GB is the winner, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		21600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 850M		14016 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 7584 (54%)

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 information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be moved over 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 RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range 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 worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as 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 memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.