GeForce GTX 460 vs GeForce GTX 480

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 480, which comes with GPU core speed of 700 MHz, and 1536 MB of GDDR5 RAM set to run at 924 MHz through a 384-bit bus. It also is comprised of 480 SPUs, 60 TAUs, and 48 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Benchmarks

These are real-world performance benchmarks that were submitted by Hardware Compare users. The scores seen here are the average of all benchmarks submitted for each respective test and hardware.

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics Score

GeForce GTX 480		3650 points
GeForce GTX 460		2557 points
	Difference: 1093 (43%)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 460		150 Watts
GeForce GTX 480		250 Watts
	Difference: 100 Watts (67%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 480 should theoretically be a lot better than the GeForce GTX 460 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		177408 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 460		86400 MB/sec
	Difference: 91008 (105%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 480 is a small bit (about 11%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GTX 460. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		42000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460		37800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 4200 (11%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 480 will be quite a bit (approximately 107%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 460, and also should be able to handle higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		33600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 460		16200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 17400 (107%)

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 data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card can possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends 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 maximum fill rate.