GeForce GT 420 vs GeForce GTX 560 Ti

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 560 Ti, which uses a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 822 MHz. The GDDR5 memory is set to run at a frequency of 1002 MHz on this model. It features 384 SPUs as well as 64 Texture Address Units and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 420		50 Watts
GeForce GTX 560 Ti		170 Watts
	Difference: 120 Watts (240%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 560 Ti should be much faster than the GeForce GT 420 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560 Ti		128256 MB/sec
GeForce GT 420		28800 MB/sec
	Difference: 99456 (345%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 560 Ti is quite a bit (approximately 839%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GT 420. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560 Ti		52608 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 420		5600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 47008 (839%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 560 Ti is superior to the GeForce GT 420, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560 Ti		26304 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 420		2800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 23504 (839%)

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 max amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines 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 rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.