GeForce GTX 460 1GB vs GeForce GTX 590

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 590, which uses a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 607 MHz. The GDDR5 memory runs at a frequency of 855 MHz on this specific card. It features 512 SPUs as well as 64 Texture Address Units and 48 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		160 Watts
GeForce GTX 590		365 Watts
	Difference: 205 Watts (128%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 590 should in theory perform much faster than the GeForce GTX 460 1GB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 590		328320 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 460 1GB		115200 MB/sec
	Difference: 213120 (185%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 590 should be quite a bit (approximately 106%) better at AF than the GeForce GTX 460 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 590		77696 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 1GB		37800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 39896 (106%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 590 is much (more or less 170%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 460 1GB, and should be capable of handling higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 590		58272 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 1GB		21600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 36672 (170%)

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.

One or more cards in this comparison are multi-core. This means that their bandwidth, texel and pixel rates are theoretically doubled - this does not mean the card will actually perform twice as fast, but only that it should in theory be able to. Actual game benchmarks will give a more accurate idea of what it's capable of.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the largest amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, 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 are processed per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card could possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines 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 rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.