GeForce GTX 285 1GB vs GeForce GTX 460 1GB

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 460 1GB, which comes with clock speeds of 675 MHz on the GPU, and 900 MHz on the 1024 MB of GDDR5 RAM. It features 336 SPUs along with 56 TAUs and 32 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		160 Watts
GeForce GTX 285 1GB		204 Watts
	Difference: 44 Watts (28%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 285 1GB should be a lot faster than the GeForce GTX 460 1GB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 285 1GB		158976 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 460 1GB		115200 MB/sec
	Difference: 43776 (38%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 285 1GB is a lot (approximately 37%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 460 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 285 1GB		51840 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 1GB		37800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 14040 (37%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 460 1GB is the winner, though only just barely. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		21600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 285 1GB		20736 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 864 (4%)

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 largest amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.