GeForce GTS 450 1GB vs GeForce GTX 460 SE

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 460 SE, which comes with core speeds of 650 MHz on the GPU, and 850 MHz on the 1024 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 288 SPUs along with 48 TAUs and 32 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		106 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 SE		150 Watts
	Difference: 44 Watts (42%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 460 SE should in theory be a lot faster than the GeForce GTS 450 1GB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		108800 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		57728 MB/sec
	Difference: 51072 (88%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 SE should be a lot (approximately 25%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GTS 450 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		31200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		25056 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 6144 (25%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 SE is much (about 66%) better at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTS 450 1GB, and should be able to handle higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		20800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		12528 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 8272 (66%)

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 maximum amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen 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 number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card can possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure 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 outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.