GeForce GTX 460 (OEM) vs GeForce GTX 870M

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 870M, which uses a 28 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 941 MHz. The GDDR5 memory works at a speed of 1000 MHz on this particular card. It features 1344 SPUs as well as 112 Texture Address Units and 24 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 870M		110 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)		150 Watts
	Difference: 40 Watts (36%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 460 (OEM) is 13% quicker than the GeForce GTX 870M in general, because of its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)		108800 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 870M		96000 MB/sec
	Difference: 12800 (13%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 870M should be quite a bit (more or less 190%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GTX 460 (OEM). (explain)

GeForce GTX 870M		105392 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)		36400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 68992 (190%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 870M is just a bit (more or less 9%) more effective at FSAA than the GeForce GTX 460 (OEM), and will be able to handle higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 870M		22584 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)		20800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1784 (9%)

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 largest amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the 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 number of pixels the video card can possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour 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 rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.