GeForce GT 420 vs GeForce GTX 460 1GB

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 460 1GB, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 675 MHz. The GDDR5 memory is set to run at a frequency of 900 MHz on this particular model. It features 336 SPUs along with 56 TAUs and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 420		50 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 1GB		160 Watts
	Difference: 110 Watts (220%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 460 1GB, in theory, should be much faster than the GeForce GT 420 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		115200 MB/sec
GeForce GT 420		28800 MB/sec
	Difference: 86400 (300%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 1GB is a lot (about 575%) better at AF than the GeForce GT 420. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		37800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 420		5600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 32200 (575%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 1GB is much (approximately 671%) better at AA than the GeForce GT 420, and also will be able to handle higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		21600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 420		2800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 18800 (671%)

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 information (in units of MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high 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 handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out 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 filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.