GeForce GTX 285 1GB vs GeForce GTX 460

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 460, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 675 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM works at a frequency of 900 MHz on this card. It features 336 SPUs along with 56 TAUs and 24 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 460		150 Watts
GeForce GTX 285 1GB		204 Watts
	Difference: 54 Watts (36%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 285 1GB should theoretically be a lot better than the GeForce GTX 460 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 285 1GB		158976 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 460		86400 MB/sec
	Difference: 72576 (84%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 285 1GB should be much (approximately 37%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 460. (explain)

GeForce GTX 285 1GB		51840 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460		37800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 14040 (37%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 285 1GB is the winner, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 285 1GB		20736 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 460		16200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 4536 (28%)

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 largest amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.