GeForce GT 420 vs GeForce GTX 460 2GB

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 460 2GB, which comes with core speeds of 675 MHz on the GPU, and 900 MHz on the 2048 MB of GDDR5 memory. 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 GT 420		50 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 2GB		160 Watts
	Difference: 110 Watts (220%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 460 2GB should in theory be a lot faster than the GeForce GT 420 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		115200 MB/sec
GeForce GT 420		28800 MB/sec
	Difference: 86400 (300%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 2GB is a lot (about 575%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce GT 420. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		37800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 420		5600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 32200 (575%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 2GB is a lot (more or less 671%) better at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GT 420, and also will be able to handle higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		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: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per 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 higher this number, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.