GeForce GTX 295 vs GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 460 (OEM), which has core clock speeds of 650 MHz on the GPU, and 850 MHz on the 1024 MB of GDDR5 RAM. It features 336 SPUs as well as 56 TAUs and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)		150 Watts
GeForce GTX 295		289 Watts
	Difference: 139 Watts (93%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 295 should be 106% quicker than the GeForce GTX 460 (OEM) in general, because of its greater bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 295		223776 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)		108800 MB/sec
	Difference: 114976 (106%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 295 will be a lot (approximately 153%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GTX 460 (OEM). (explain)

GeForce GTX 295		92160 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)		36400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 55760 (153%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 295 should be quite a bit (more or less 55%) more effective at FSAA than the GeForce GTX 460 (OEM), and also capable of handling higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 295		32256 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)		20800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 11456 (55%)

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.

One or more cards in this comparison are multi-core. This means that their bandwidth, texel and pixel rates are theoretically doubled - this does not mean the card will actually perform twice as fast, but only that it should in theory be able to. Actual game benchmarks will give a more accurate idea of what it's capable of.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. 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 get to the max fill rate.