GeForce GT 420 vs GeForce GTX 460 SE

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 460 SE, which comes with a core clock frequency of 650 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 850 MHz. It also uses a 256-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It features 288 SPUs, 48 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation 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

The GeForce GTX 460 SE should in theory perform 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 a lot (about 457%) faster with regards to texture filtering 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 quite a bit (about 643%) better at AA than the GeForce GT 420, and should be capable of handling higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (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: Bandwidth is the largest amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the clock 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 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.