GeForce 8500 GT vs GeForce GTX 460 1GB

Intro

Compare all 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 ROPs.

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

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 460 1GB should be much faster than the GeForce 8500 GT in general. (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%) faster with regards to anisotropic 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 will be much (approximately 1100%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8500 GT, and should be capable of handling higher resolutions while still performing well. (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: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the 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 chip can possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.