GeForce GTS 150 vs GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 460 (OEM), which has a core clock frequency of 650 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 850 MHz. It also uses a 256-bit memory bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It features 336 SPUs, 56 Texture Address Units, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTS 150		141 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)		150 Watts
	Difference: 9 Watts (6%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 460 (OEM), in theory, should perform much faster than the GeForce GTS 150 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)		108800 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 150		32000 MB/sec
	Difference: 76800 (240%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 150 is quite a bit (more or less 30%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 460 (OEM). (explain)

GeForce GTS 150		47360 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)		36400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 10960 (30%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 460 (OEM) is a better choice, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)		20800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 150		11840 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 8960 (76%)

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 (counted in MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to its 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 clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.