GeForce GTX 275 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 set the core frequency at 650 MHz. The GDDR5 memory runs at a speed of 850 MHz on this particular card. It features 288 SPUs as well as 48 Texture Address Units and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		150 Watts
GeForce GTX 275		219 Watts
	Difference: 69 Watts (46%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 275 is 17% quicker than the GeForce GTX 460 SE overall, due to its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 275		127008 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 460 SE		108800 MB/sec
	Difference: 18208 (17%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 275 is quite a bit (about 62%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GTX 460 SE. (explain)

GeForce GTX 275		50640 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 SE		31200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 19440 (62%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 SE is a bit (approximately 17%) more effective at FSAA than the GeForce GTX 275, and should be capable of handling higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		20800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 275		17724 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3076 (17%)

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 information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video 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 could possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.