GeForce GTS 450 1GB vs GeForce GTX 660

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 660, which has GPU clock speed of 980 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 RAM running at 1502 MHz through a 192-bit bus. It also is comprised of 960 SPUs, 80 TAUs, and 24 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		106 Watts
GeForce GTX 660		140 Watts
	Difference: 34 Watts (32%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 660 is 150% faster than the GeForce GTS 450 1GB overall, due to its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		144192 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		57728 MB/sec
	Difference: 86464 (150%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 660 should be much (about 213%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce GTS 450 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		78400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		25056 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 53344 (213%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 660 is the winner, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		23520 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		12528 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 10992 (88%)

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 (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly write to the 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 the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.