GeForce 9800 GTX+ vs GeForce GTX 460

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 460, which has a core clock speed of 675 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 900 MHz. It also features a 192-bit memory bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It is made up of 336 SPUs, 56 Texture Address Units, and 24 Raster Operation Units.

Battlefield Bad Company 2

Settings:	High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTX 460		35 FPS
GeForce 9800 GTX+		26 FPS
	Difference: 9 FPS (35%)

Left4Dead 2

Settings:	Very High
AA:	8x
AF:	16x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTX 460		77 FPS
GeForce 9800 GTX+		50 FPS
	Difference: 27 FPS (54%)

Mass Effect 2

Settings:	Maximum Quality
AA:	none
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTX 460		91 FPS
GeForce 9800 GTX+		81 FPS
	Difference: 10 FPS (12%)

Supreme Commander 2

Settings:	High
AA:	8x
AF:	16x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTX 460		75 FPS
GeForce 9800 GTX+		34 FPS
	Difference: 41 FPS (121%)

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GeForce GTX 460 wins

(Based entirely on the benchmarks listed above)

When combining all game benchmark scores on this page together, the GeForce GTX 460 wins overall, by 87 FPS. Please note that we do not have the results of every benchmark ever done for these cards, so the results may differ wildly in different games.

GeForce GTX 460		278 FPS
GeForce 9800 GTX+		191 FPS
	Difference: 87 FPS (46%)

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9800 GTX+		145 Watts
GeForce GTX 460		150 Watts
	Difference: 5 Watts (3%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 460 should theoretically perform much faster than the GeForce 9800 GTX+ in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460		86400 MB/sec
GeForce 9800 GTX+		70400 MB/sec
	Difference: 16000 (23%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GTX+ should be much (approximately 25%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 460. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX+		47232 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460		37800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 9432 (25%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 will be much (more or less 37%) more effective at AA than the GeForce 9800 GTX+, and also able to handle higher resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460		16200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9800 GTX+		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 4392 (37%)

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 (measured in MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, 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 number is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core 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 processed per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the video card could possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.