GeForce GTX 260 vs GeForce GTX 460

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 460, which features GPU clock speed of 675 MHz, and 768 MB of GDDR5 RAM set to run at 900 MHz through a 192-bit bus. It also is made up of 336 Stream Processors, 56 TAUs, and 24 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 460		150 Watts
GeForce GTX 260		182 Watts
	Difference: 32 Watts (21%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 260 should in theory be quite a bit better than the GeForce GTX 460 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260		111888 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 460		86400 MB/sec
	Difference: 25488 (30%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 will be a bit (approximately 3%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 260. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460		37800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 260		36864 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 936 (3%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 460 is superior to the GeForce GTX 260, but only just. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460		16200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 260		16128 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 72 (0%)

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.