GeForce 8500 GT vs GeForce GTX 460 1GB

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 460 1GB, which uses a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 675 MHz. The GDDR5 memory is set to run at a speed of 900 MHz on this specific model. It features 336 SPUs along with 56 Texture Address Units and 32 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8500 GT		45 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 1GB		160 Watts
	Difference: 115 Watts (256%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 460 1GB should in theory be much better than the GeForce 8500 GT overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		115200 MB/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 102400 (800%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 1GB should be quite a bit (about 950%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 8500 GT. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		37800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		3600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 34200 (950%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 1GB is much (about 1100%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8500 GT, and also should be capable of handling higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		21600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		1800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 19800 (1100%)

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 data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better 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 are applied in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.