GeForce GT 420 vs GeForce GTX 460 SE

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 460 SE, which uses a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 650 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM is set to run at a speed of 850 MHz on this specific card. 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 GT 420		50 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 SE		150 Watts
	Difference: 100 Watts (200%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 460 SE should be a lot faster than the GeForce GT 420 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		108800 MB/sec
GeForce GT 420		28800 MB/sec
	Difference: 80000 (278%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 SE will be quite a bit (about 457%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GT 420. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		31200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 420		5600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 25600 (457%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 SE is a lot (more or less 643%) faster with regards to AA than the GeForce GT 420, and able to handle higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		20800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 420		2800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 18000 (643%)

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 (measured in MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.