GeForce GTX 460 2GB vs GeForce GTX 980M

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 980M, which has a core clock frequency of 1038 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1000 MHz. It also makes use of a 256-bit bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It features 1536 SPUs, 96 Texture Address Units, and 64 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 980M		100 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 2GB		160 Watts
	Difference: 60 Watts (60%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce GTX 980M should be just a bit faster than the GeForce GTX 460 2GB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980M		128000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 460 2GB		115200 MB/sec
	Difference: 12800 (11%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 980M will be a lot (approximately 164%) better at AF than the GeForce GTX 460 2GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980M		99648 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 2GB		37800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 61848 (164%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 980M is a lot (approximately 208%) faster with regards to anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 460 2GB, and also will be capable of handling higher resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980M		66432 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 2GB		21600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 44832 (208%)

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 information (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the 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 texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). 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 potential to get to the max fill rate.