GeForce GTS 450 vs GeForce GTX 460 SE

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 460 SE, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 650 MHz. The GDDR5 memory runs at a frequency of 850 MHz on this model. It features 288 SPUs along with 48 Texture Address Units and 32 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

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

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce GTX 460 SE should perform a lot faster than the GeForce GTS 450 overall. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 SE should be much (more or less 25%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GTS 450. (explain)

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

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 460 SE is the winner, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		20800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 450		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: Memory bandwidth is the max amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total number of 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 applied in a 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. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.