GeForce GTS 450 vs GeForce GTX 460

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 460, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 675 MHz. The GDDR5 memory works at a frequency of 900 MHz on this particular model. It features 336 SPUs as well as 56 Texture Address Units and 24 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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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 460		2557 points
GeForce GTS 450		1453 points
	Difference: 1104 (76%)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTS 450		106 Watts
GeForce GTX 460		150 Watts
	Difference: 44 Watts (42%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 460 should be 50% faster than the GeForce GTS 450 overall, because of its greater bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460		86400 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 450		57728 MB/sec
	Difference: 28672 (50%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 should be quite a bit (more or less 51%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GTS 450. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460		37800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 450		25056 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 12744 (51%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 460 is a better choice, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460		16200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 450		12528 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3672 (29%)

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 moved across the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This 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 texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs 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 output rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.