GeForce GTX 460 SE vs GeForce GTX 470

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 470, which has core speeds of 607 MHz on the GPU, and 837 MHz on the 1280 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 448 SPUs as well as 56 Texture Address Units and 40 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		150 Watts
GeForce GTX 470		215 Watts
	Difference: 65 Watts (43%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce GTX 470 should be quite a bit faster than the GeForce GTX 460 SE in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		133920 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 460 SE		108800 MB/sec
	Difference: 25120 (23%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 470 is a small bit (about 9%) better at AF than the GeForce GTX 460 SE. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		33992 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 SE		31200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 2792 (9%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 470 is a little bit (more or less 17%) faster with regards to anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 460 SE, and should be capable of handling higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		24280 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 SE		20800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3480 (17%)

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 (in units of MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 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 texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs 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 many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.