GeForce GTX 460 SE vs GeForce GTX 550 Ti

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 550 Ti, which has clock speeds of 900 MHz on the GPU, and 1026 MHz on the 1024 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 192 SPUs along with 32 Texture Address Units and 24 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 550 Ti		116 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 SE		150 Watts
	Difference: 34 Watts (29%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 460 SE should theoretically be a bit better than the GeForce GTX 550 Ti in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		108800 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 550 Ti		98496 MB/sec
	Difference: 10304 (10%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 SE should be just a bit (more or less 8%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GTX 550 Ti. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		31200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 550 Ti		28800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 2400 (8%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 550 Ti is a better choice, though only just barely. (explain)

GeForce GTX 550 Ti		21600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 SE		20800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 800 (4%)

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 (in units of MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, 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 are processed per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the graphics card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card could 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 core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.