GeForce GTX 460 SE vs GeForce GTX 960

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 960, which has a clock frequency of 1127 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1750 MHz. It also uses a 128-bit bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It is made up of 1024 SPUs, 64 Texture Address Units, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 960		120 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 SE		150 Watts
	Difference: 30 Watts (25%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 960 is 3% quicker than the GeForce GTX 460 SE in general, because of its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960		112000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 460 SE		108800 MB/sec
	Difference: 3200 (3%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 960 should be quite a bit (approximately 131%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GTX 460 SE. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960		72128 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 SE		31200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 40928 (131%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 960 is much (about 73%) faster with regards to AA than the GeForce GTX 460 SE, and will be able to handle higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960		36064 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 SE		20800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 15264 (73%)

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 (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR 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 figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, 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 most pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the card's 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 - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.